Gaming laptop suggestions?

[Kingsdown77]

I was looking into a gaming laptop for around $1400.
Some laptops I've been looking into:

Asus ROG G750JM - $1349
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231630&cm_re=asus_rog_g750jm-_-34-231-630-_-Product

Alienware 17 with i7-4710MQ CPU, 8GB RAM 1600MHz, 860M 2GB options. $1499

MSI GT70 Dominator - $1399
http/www.amazon.com/MSI-GT70-Dominator-895-9S7-1763A2-895-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ6I6/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-3&keywords=MSI+gaming+laptop

Lenovo Y50 - $1349
http/www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Y50-Laptop-Computer-Generation/dp/B00KD5DUR2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1410032472&sr=8-2&keywords=Lenovo+y50p

Anyone had any experience with any of these laptops? Suggestions of another good gaming laptop in that price range would be great as well.

 

[yungg]

MSI GT70 DOMINATOR FOSHURE!

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd go the Asus ROG, like having the extra DRAM for a little longer life cycle

 

[Kingsdown77]

Is the extra DRAM with an 860m and i7-4700hq better than having an 870m and i7-4800mq?

 

[Tradesman1]

I'd like having the extra DRAM, especially if you plan to game and do anything else like record, have played with two of these and both ran extremely well and cool. You might want the slightly better and CPU and GPU, to meit's MSI and that's a negative, I won't use their products due to their poor QC....With laptops I look at Lenova and Asus first and usually decide between them

 

[Guest]

Is the extra DRAM with an 860m and i7-4700hq better than having an 870m and i7-4800mq?

I'd like having the extra DRAM, especially if you plan to game and do anything else like record, have played with two of these and both ran extremely well and cool. You might want the slightly better and CPU and GPU, to meit's MSI and that's a negative, I won't use their products due to their poor QC....With laptops I look at Lenova and Asus first and usually decide between them

Not to be mean, but I wouldn't trust any entitled child who says Lenova, Crapware, windowse, etc. Their names are well established as "Lenovo", "Alienware" and "Windows". Nevertheless, The Asus ROG seems to be the best option out of those three.

 

[Tradesman1]

Well, I've had my own systems business for about 16 years now and wouldn't have it if I recommended or used 'crapware' components in builds - trust me they come back and bite you in the butt...as with any in the business we all have our own favored brands we look to first i.e. mobos - I ONLY build on Asus, the Rock and GB - yes there are plenty of others with 'established' names BioStar has been around since the mid 80's, MSI started up about the same time, haven't touched BioStar in a long, long, time, MSI started headed downhill about 2009 and I I stuck with them for a few years after that, dropped them in 2012 when it just got too bad, and it hasn't improved...Can't think of any of the builders and IT pros I network with that will touch BioStar or MSI anymore

 

[IInuyasha74]

Is the extra DRAM with an 860m and i7-4700hq better than having an 870m and i7-4800mq?

I'd like having the extra DRAM, especially if you plan to game and do anything else like record, have played with two of these and both ran extremely well and cool. You might want the slightly better and CPU and GPU, to meit's MSI and that's a negative, I won't use their products due to their poor QC....With laptops I look at Lenova and Asus first and usually decide between them

Not to be mean, but I wouldn't trust any entitled child who says Lenova, Crapware, windowse, etc. Their names are well established as "Lenovo", "Alienware" and "Windows". Nevertheless, The Asus ROG seems to be the best option out of those three.

Dude don't be so foolish. People are busy and a few spelling mistakes are not a big deal. It happens. Tradesman1 is one of best known and most knowledgeable moderators on tomshardware.com, has been here for years, and puts a lot of time in helping people. You shouldn't be so rude.

@kingsdown77: As for recommendations on laptops, I personally agree with the first person about getting the MSI laptop. The Lenovo and the Allienware don't seem worth considering I would think because all around the MSI and the Asus laptops are better off. Simply put.

As for why the MSI laptop, the CPU and GPU in it are better. These are parts that you most likely cannot change ever. So I see it as best to get the best of thsoe you can. It only has 8GB of RAM, and 12GB might help in some situations, but it has four RAM slots inside of the case, and any novice can upgrade the RAM. It can have up to 32GB of RAM if you wanted, and it also has a place for a second HDD, so it seems better overall.

 

[Tradesman1]

IInuyasha74

Thanks but a bit of an exaggeration, I've been here just a little over a year now Though in that time have helped as many as I could. As I mentioned we all have our favorite brands... When you build and work with system all the time, and keep seeing the same brand with failing far and away more than others, then you stay away from that brand, and I see more MSI mobo failures/problems of the various components of the mobos than any 2 other brands put together. Others see it also in MSI and apparently have been same as I have as their overall sales have been dropping year after year

 

[IInuyasha74]

IInuyasha74

Thanks but a bit of an exaggeration, I've been here just a little over a year now Though in that time have helped as many as I could. As I mentioned we all have our favorite brands... When you build and work with system all the time, and keep seeing the same brand with failing far and away more than others, then you stay away from that brand, and I see more MSI mobo failures/problems of the various components of the mobos than any 2 other brands put together. Others see it also in MSI and apparently have been same as I have as their overall sales have been dropping year after year

Huh, well you have nearly 31,000 posts so I thought you must of been here for years lol. Still other than that the rest sticks. Our moderators do us a service of helping people and keeping the forum organized and under control. Granted its possible sometimes an opinionated (fanboy opinionated not just regular has an opinion but open to others ideas opinionated) jerk gets dropped into a moderator position, but that isn't evident here so people should be a little more civil than to call out for something so small.

As for the laptop, I've had two MSI motherboards in recent years and both have worked well. Though to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if they are dropping in quality a little bit. I've noticed this recently about Sapphire, EVGA, MSI, Gigabyte, Asus etc. It seems most of them only really excel at one thing. Sapphire is probably the best AMD card maker and EVGA the best for Nvidia cards, but they have a completely failed motherboard line, most don't even know they ever made motherboards. Gigabyte makes awesome motherboards, but their GPUs tend to be lower quality with the cheap GPUs being pretty terrible, and the high end ones being good just not as good as the competition. MSI feels to be more middle rank of both to me, and Asus is the exception that proves the rule.

Anyways there motherboards might not be the best quality, but reviews for this particular laptop on Newegg have been pretty good, and on Amazon not too bad. It has a 4/5 rating all around. Three people had some pretty bad things to say on amazon, but the other 21 people on amazon gave it pretty good, and the 15 on Newegg didn't have any issues outside of one person saying it gets hot. Bestbuy had all 5-star ratings. I'm just not getting the vibe that this is a poorly designed system.

 

[Tradesman1]

Not saying poorly designed...saying QC (quality control) stinks....with poor QC you are more likely to have something that's a part of the laptop fail, or mobo, or GPU or whatever.

 

[IInuyasha74]

Not saying poorly designed...saying QC (quality control) stinks....with poor QC you are more likely to have something that's a part of the laptop fail, or mobo, or GPU or whatever.

Well then Kingsdown77, its a toss up between these two, take whichever you feel better with. Trandsman1 feels strongly that the Asus one would be better for reasons mentioned above and it probably does have better QC, but I personally feel it worth the risk to go with MSI and get the better overall hardware (except for RAM). Read the reviews from customers and tech experts about the two laptops, if you find the MSI laptops reviews worry you too much just get the Asus one, the hardware isn't much lower and in truth the GPU is based on the new Maxwell architecture for the Asus laptop which will give lower heat and power consumption for it which is a plus. I don't think you will lose out on anything substantial either way so you might feel better going with the Asus laptop, its just not the one I personally would go with.