Two Laptops, Which one?

Purpose for the laptop? Both are overkill for school or business work.

I would agree. For every day use, social networking, and light gaming these are beasts.

What will you be specifically using this laptop for?

Are there any must have specs or options? Maybe then I will be able to assess what exactly what you need.

Kevin
Windows Outreach Team

Well I will be using it for uni, but I want the grunt for my games (WoW, CoD, Crysis, etc) as well and for it to be able to handle applications like Sibelius and Cubase for my music recording/editing.

Edit: As far as I can tell, the first one has a better GPU but a weaker CPU and vice versa for the second one. I want to know whether it is better to sacrifice the small CPU difference or the GPU difference. The 5870 is a fair bit better than the 460M, but the CPU does affect the GPU performance.

The Mobility 5870 and 460M are closer in performance that you probably imagine.

Here are some gaming benchmarks for comparison:

Thanks mate, I'll have a look at that  

Something to keep in mind. Those benchmarks might have been done with 1366x768 resolution LCDs so something that looks playable at Ultra is likely to need to run @ High on 1920x1080 LCDs to get fluid & smooth performance.

I think I'll just go for the MSI GX660R and give the CPU a slight OC.

Was tempted into buying from the US, but after seeing how much it might cost in duty taxes, GST, etc I think I'll just stick to buy here.

Don't spose you guys have any idea how much it usually costs for something like this after it arrives in AUS from the US? (I hear it's something like an extra $600 on top of the total price + Shipping)

You can get an estimate from one of the sites that ship internationally like Xotic PC.
Additionally, they have the new Sandy Bridge CPUs available as well. And you get to choose optional configurations.
They're also showing a MSI laptops, along with Asus and Custom Sagers.

Sager Notebooks is another site that will ship down under.

$1799 USD is equal to about 1812 AUD these days. Even with $320 for shipping it could be a good deal for you.