17" Asus or MSI recommendation

[shabac]

Hello,

I have been shopping recently for a 17" gaming laptop. I have narrowed the selection down to the Asus G75-VW DH72 and the MSI GT70-0ND-492US. They are equipped close to the same, with a minor cost difference. Does anyone see anything glaring about one versus the other? Any recommendations on either from your experience?

Thank you in advance,

 

[KernalPanic]

The ASUS are solid laptops, but max out with the 670m for now.

In comparison, in the same price range you can get an MSI with a 680m.

The 680m will absolutely destroy the 670m. It isn't even close.

The 670m is essentially an underclocked desktop 460 768MB (with more RAM).
The 680m is an underclocked desktop GTX 670 with slower RAM.

The 680m is around twice as fast as the 670m.

Given they are similar in price, I'd take the 680m any day.

 

[Isaiah4110]

Hello,

I have been shopping recently for a 17" gaming laptop. I have narrowed the selection down to the Asus G75-VW DH72 and the MSI GT70-0ND-492US. They are equipped close to the same, with a minor cost difference. Does anyone see anything glaring about one versus the other? Any recommendations on either from your experience?

Thank you in advance,

That kind of depends a little more on your specifics. Both of those look like very nice models to me, and the price difference I'm seeing on Newegg is $150. If that literally doesn't matter at all to you then ignore that factor in my analysis here.

I personally like both ASUS and MSI products. I usually consider them a tie in quality, but when all else is equal and I'm forced to choose I give the slight edge to ASUS.

HDD, RAM, CPU and OS are a completely identical wash and therefore don't really factor into considerations.

That leaves the remaining differences as the external ports, SSDs, and GPUs.

External ports don't matter too much, but you are getting 4 x USB 3.0 on the ASUS vs. 3 x USB 3.0, 2 x USB 2.0, and one eSATA on the MSI. USB 3.0 ports are backward compatible with USB 2.0 devices, so you don't really need to worry about being able to connect old devices to the ASUS. Unless you actually plan on using 5 USB devices at once (and don't want to buy a hub) or you seriously plan on making use of the eSATA port on the MSI then these really end up being a wash in the end as well. I like the way the MSI has the power and network ports on the back, but that is more a case of personal preference.

The biggest difference I'm seeing in the specs for those specific models is the SSD capacity. I don't the the value of the 256 GB drive in the ASUS model vs. the 128 GB drive in the MSI model can be overstated, especially when you factor in how much unnecessary "extra software" manufacturers are prone to include on their computers. That extra space is a huge + for me, and right off the bat might be worth the $150 extra on Newegg.

As far as GPUs go, you are looking at a 670 with 3GB RAM in the ASUS vs. a 675 with 4GB RAM in the MSI. I can't really give you specifics on what type of real world (FPS or otherwise) gaming performance differences these will give you, but I can't really imagine them being very large. I would take a stab in the dark and guess that they will probably be within 5 FPS of each other. Keep in mind gaming performance will also fluctuate based on what level of gaming you actually plan on doing. In a nutshell, I would not expect the GPU difference to matter unless you are wanting to try to play the latest and greatest games on ultra settings in serious competitions.



All that said, if price doesn't matter at all, or matters very little, then I definitely like the ASUS and its 256GB SSD best. If, however, you would like to save that $150 (or however much it is where you are purchasing it) and use that to buy a couple new games, then I'm sure you would be happy with the MSI as well. I hope that analysis helps you out.