Alienware 17 vs MSI GS60 Ghost-003

[Revolt_]

So I have been comparing tons of laptops on price, specs, build quality, heat, battery life, etc. and I really like the MSI GS60 Ghost-003. I recently started looking into Alienware laptops as I new they were all really high priced and not necessarily something I could afford (my price range being $1750 max).
The Ghost comes out to $1724.00 after I customize it on Xoticpc with the specs of

• 
  4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700HQ
  NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5
  16GB DDR3 1600MHz (Dual Channel Memory (2x8GB SODIMMS))
  128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA - Stock
  1TB 7200RPM (SATA III - 6GB/s) - Default
  Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth 4.0
  ^ (Although i'm not too concerned with any wifi card as I have my own external one)
  Smart Li-ion Battery (6-Cell)

The Alienware 17 (860M) comes out to $1694.00 after I customized it on Xoticpc with the specs of

• 
  4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4710MQ
  NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5
  8GB DDR3 1600MHz (CL11 Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB SODIMMS))
  500GB (w/ 8GB SSD Memory) 5400RPM Seagate Hybrid 64MB Cache (SATA III - 6GB/s) - Default
  Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth 4.0
  Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)

So I guess my questions are these:

Which one should I buy?

What's the difference between a 128GB SSD mSATA + 1TB HDD vs 500GB Hybrid Drive?

Which of those is the best?

I read that the benchmarks between the i7-4710MQ and 4700HQ are very marginal as well as the lithium ion battery which lasts roughly the same time as the 8-cell probably uses more than the 6-cell.

 

[popatim]

I would personally get the MSI. For $30 you get a true 128gb SSD, 8gb more ram, and 500gb larger HDD.

The hybrids SSD is not something you can control and is only 4 or 8gb large depending on the exact model#. Enough to cache windows and a few apps. Again you have no control over what it decides to cache beyond using a whole bunch of times to try and force it.

Plus I hate dealing with Dell support...

 

[Revolt_]

Thanks popatim for the insight! I'll certainly take that into consideration and most likely end up ordering the MSI.

 

[orlbuckeye]

So I have been comparing tons of laptops on price, specs, build quality, heat, battery life, etc. and I really like the MSI GS60 Ghost-003. I recently started looking into Alienware laptops as I new they were all really high priced and not necessarily something I could afford (my price range being $1750 max).
The Ghost comes out to $1724.00 after I customize it on Xoticpc with the specs of

• 
  4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700HQ
  NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5
  16GB DDR3 1600MHz (Dual Channel Memory (2x8GB SODIMMS))
  128GB Solid State Drive [M.2] mSATA - Stock
  1TB 7200RPM (SATA III - 6GB/s) - Default
  Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth 4.0
  ^ (Although i'm not too concerned with any wifi card as I have my own external one)
  Smart Li-ion Battery (6-Cell)

The Alienware 17 (860M) comes out to $1694.00 after I customized it on Xoticpc with the specs of

• 
  4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4710MQ
  NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5
  8GB DDR3 1600MHz (CL11 Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB SODIMMS))
  500GB (w/ 8GB SSD Memory) 5400RPM Seagate Hybrid 64MB Cache (SATA III - 6GB/s) - Default
  Intel® Dual Band AC 7260 802.11 A/AC/B/G/N 2.4/5.0GHz + Bluetooth 4.0
  Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)

So I guess my questions are these:

Which one should I buy?

What's the difference between a 128GB SSD mSATA + 1TB HDD vs 500GB Hybrid Drive?

Which of those is the best?

I read that the benchmarks between the i7-4710MQ and 4700HQ are very marginal as well as the lithium ion battery which lasts roughly the same time as the 8-cell probably uses more than the 6-cell.

Im bias to Alienware but one thing I've heard about MSI is they put a strip on the case that if you break it your warranty is void. That means if you want to add components yourself.

I just purchased an Alienware 18 and I love it. I selected the option 256 SSD MSATA and 1TB HDD. The difference is that the 256 MSATA is a boot drive and will make faster boot times. A hybrid is a HD with an SSD built in for Caching and won't increase boot times. The caching will make your often used software load faster. SSD is much more costly then Hybrid drives. Alienware does also offer a 80GB MSATA caching drive the work the same as a hybrid basically.

Now one thing with the Alienware 18 is 2 memory slots are visible and 2 require the keyboard to be removed if I wanted to go to 32 gb of ram. I'm not sure about the AW 17.

The configurations you show the MSI has better components but you can get the Alienware configured with the same components but will cost more.

Also you say your not worried about the Wireless and there is a new 802.11 AC out there now and the world to it but it would require a new router.

 

[untamedbullet247]

I have personally owned both, I prefer alienware. the reason being this... Upgradability...not all notebooks allow it, but alienware does. Later on down the road if you want to add a different video card you can, upgrade the processor you can. Youtube has plenty of videos on it. Also, As of right now on alienwares website you can order the base model while changing the processor up to an i7-4710mq, and add a 1tb hard drive and an 80gb msata drive for 1599.99. Also, depending on when you read this as of today 10/4 dell has a 50 dollar coupon off and purchase 699.99 or more..You don't have to use the msata drive as a caching drive it it can be a designated boot drive like that is mine. Also, since the alienware is still a little cheaper you could add another SSD which you can pick a 120gb up for around 60 bucks. Alienware allows for 2 internal hard drives as well as the msata drive that is under the keyboard. At that point you would be ahead with the alienware. The difference would only be ram....which depending on which you are wanting to do could be upgraded later since 8 is perfect for gaming