Another "Which Should I Get?" Thread (Yay!) --- ASUS G750JX-DB71 vs MSI GS70 2OD-002US

[Bob_Loblaw]

Hello Tom's Hardware community! I have a pretty standard question that probably gets asked a lot: "Which laptop do I get?"

I live in Canada and after having the world's worst experience with Lenovo, I decided to go with either ASUS or MSI and chose the best two $1700-$1800 models they could each offer. A little research later and I've arrived at these two (each link has more in-depth specs. if you scroll down) :

ASUS G750JX-DB71

MSI GS70 2OD-002US


I'm no tech wizard but there are a few things I've learned in my research. While the two laptops are quite similar (16 GB RAM, 17.3", etc.), the ASUS comes with the GTX 770M beating the MSI's GTX 765M. But the MSI has 1 TB 7200 rpm HDD/256GB SSD (2 X 128GB RAID) which bests the ASUS.

I'm a big fan of the MSI's sleek design. Its simple and elegant. The ASUS on the other hand is a few neon lights away from being an Alienware's lovechild. Ultimately though the laptop will remain at home mostly, but I will occasionally take it to Uni to take notes or for some very light gaming.

If you have any suggestions that aren't these two, please feel free to share. Price range is $1700-$1800. Any and all help is appreciated.

 

[TriBeard]

I would go with the Asus, no question. It's got the better GPU, and it still has a 1TB hard drive with a 256GB ssd, which I think is probably better than the two in raid (greater chance of failure with the 2 drives vs the one). Also, you can always upgrade storage later if you need to. Upgrading video cards is usually impossible at worst, impractical at best. I also like the design of the Asus laptops a lot more than the MSI and have had better experience with Asus branded stuff than MSI branded stuff.