New MSI gaming laptop? What do you think? GT70 Dominator Dragon-1886

[tommyturner12]

Recently, I've been searching around for some gaming laptops to use as a desktop replacement. I've already cut out:

-Sager: Haven't seen many reviews, though it's VERY cheap and VERY powerful, I don't trust buying from a rather, smaller, company, than the other widely trusted brands(ASUS, MSI, Lenovo)

and

-ASUS: Much more expensive than what you're paying for in hardware, though it has great cooling and build quality, the price/performance ratio doesn't cut it.

Obviously, Alienware is gone. As is Toshiba, Dell, XP, and unfortunately Lenovo (Lenovo makes pretty good gaming laptops, but not for me).

That leaves one top notch quality company left, MSI. Everyone knows MSI makes laptops designed specifically for gaming. They also know that they throw in insanely powerful specs at a cheap cost.

Now, I've heard all the talk about the cooling issues with MSI. I don't find that to be 100% relevant. The thing is, for the specs, MSI gaming laptops stay pretty cool, and with some better thermal paste, a cooling pad, and Turbo Boost on, you can cool the laptop temps dramatically by up to 20°C. Not only that, what I love about MSI is that they have incredible ventilation. It dissipates all of the heat away from crucial components, and the keyboard also stays nice and cool, too. I'm pretty sure I'm okay with cooling for now.

My budget is $1400, and I'll stretch the extra $50 at the MOST. The laptop I've been looking into is a bit different than the others. It is a GT70 Dominator 895, except with a 4810MQ and a red chassis. It's referred to as the GT70 Dominator Dragon-1886. I've found literally ZERO reviews on it, so here are the links:

http/www.amazon.com/MSI-GT70-DOMINATOR-DRAGON-1886-17-3-Inch/dp/B00LJEJZSY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KEM9PDSET0Y57QYCJ8F

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?gclid=Cj0KEQjwrqieBRCln82Rgufz7I0BEiQAPNjAI6giyyvVri3L9xv8vGcaWewrb9fAPdh5hnZHBC9lsroaAjvS8P8HAQ&Item=N82E16834152602&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-All+Gaming+Notebooks-_-N82E16834152602&ef_id=UruDBAAABPDZ9SMa:20140720034526:s

So, at $1450, it comes packed with an Intel i7 4810MQ, a GTX 870m with 3GB VRAM, 8GB upgradeable RAM, a 1TB HDD, along with Windows 8.1, a 17.3" screen, and a 1080p HD screen resolution. I'll add an SSD later along with 16 more gigs of RAM to maximize the experience.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn't just go $50 cheaper and get the NORMAL GT70. The reason is because that at almost $1500, at the price you're paying, anyone deserves some eye candy with what they pay for. I love the red color to the chassis, along with the 4810MQ CPU. Sure the 4810MQ isn't that much better than the 4800MQ (about 3-5% better), but I don't care.

Now, I'd love to hear you're opinions on the MSI GT70 Dominator Dragon-1886. Should I bite the bullet and grab it? If I do, which I've basically just convinced myself I would, I'll put a review up on Youtube and add a nice, well written out response on Amazon and/or Newegg. I'll update this post in about January and give you the links to the review. Maybe, if I save the money to buy a high quality camera, I'll do an unboxing. I hope by that time there'll be some reviews out there.

Also, it comes with a free mouse and mouse pad.

Leave your thoughts below. Please, do not address the fact that desktops are better, or ASUS is more bang for buck, etc. I've made up my mind. I just want to know what you guys think. Sorry for the long post! Had to get it in one try

Cheers!

 

[Dblkk]

@Dblkk
Wow im really amazed about ur massive experience with little gaming folks. Im going to buy one next week and seriously im stuck with the choice between the GT72 and the G750JZ. The GT72 seem to fix his brother issue - the heat. The design of both kinda similar. The advantage of GT72 is it's a bit lighter, thinner and for me, looks better. So what do u think? Looking forward to seeing our opinion.

I've been following the GT72 since it first leaked about 4 months ago. It's an awesome machine, and cooling wise is even better than the asus. Honestly, given that theyre both the same price, the msi offers more. You get gamecaster for 6 months, you get 4x msata card vs asus 2x, better cooling, quieter cooling, plus msi is easy to open up and do things with, asus is a whole complete tear down. I'd go msi gt72 100%.

But on that note, next month NVidia is releasing the new Maxwell 970 and 980m models. Might not be released right away, but im sure the gt 72 and asus g750 have models waiting to launch. If you can, id wait just a few more months and get the brand new gt72 and the brand new grpahics card.

Can the cpu of the gt72 be swapped for a better one? I'm an architecture student so i need a good cpu that can handle rendering and modelling, the gt70 looks good but i'd rather go for a newer model, the gt72, but the cpu isn't as good.

No, the CPU according to model number is socketed. And a 4710 i7. Honestly, there is only 2 chips better, a 4810 and a 4930. the 4810 is only a few hundred mhz above this and that's whats in the GT70 series now.

But the 4930k chip, is a few hundred mhz above that, and costs about $1000 chip alone.

The 4710 is more of a chip than you will ever 'need'. Any upgrades from now til 4 years from now (straight performance wise) shouldn't/wouldn't yield a big enough gain to upgrade the chip.

The graphics are typically the only thing ever upgraded inside the laptop. And even those are typically only 'needed' based on gaming performance every 3-4 years.

 

[Mido Elmasry]

@Dblkk
Wow im really amazed about ur massive experience with little gaming folks. Im going to buy one next week and seriously im stuck with the choice between the GT72 and the G750JZ. The GT72 seem to fix his brother issue - the heat. The design of both kinda similar. The advantage of GT72 is it's a bit lighter, thinner and for me, looks better. So what do u think? Looking forward to seeing our opinion.

I've been following the GT72 since it first leaked about 4 months ago. It's an awesome machine, and cooling wise is even better than the asus. Honestly, given that theyre both the same price, the msi offers more. You get gamecaster for 6 months, you get 4x msata card vs asus 2x, better cooling, quieter cooling, plus msi is easy to open up and do things with, asus is a whole complete tear down. I'd go msi gt72 100%.

But on that note, next month NVidia is releasing the new Maxwell 970 and 980m models. Might not be released right away, but im sure the gt 72 and asus g750 have models waiting to launch. If you can, id wait just a few more months and get the brand new gt72 and the brand new grpahics card.

 

[Mido Elmasry]

so the msi gt72 is better than asus g750jz 100% but i dont know if i will face any problems with the battery because it is built in this makes me worry and also am worry about making it open from the bottom will make it a dust eater please answer i noticed that you are interested about these things

 

[Dblkk]

Well intels baytrail will also be out by end of year. Might as well wait for that to.

I'd take an Asus jz over msi.

Bottom of msi all open, Asus pretty sealed. Battery on Asus externally removable.
Keyboard on Asus more solid keys better typing, for me at least. Plus this is msi's first go, Asus not so much as theve had dual configs for 4+ years now

 

[Wronger007]

I currently have the MSI GT70 dominator pro 890. It has the i7 4810 and gtx 880m. I have just come from a asus g750 jz (880m), before that JS (870m), and before that one a JM (860m).

I went through all the asus models and ended with the msi. Only because while rendering and working on 3d animation and 4k video editing. A 100% cpu load led to 100c and thermal throttling. The MSI is great, don't get me wrong. But I still prefer the asus.

The MSI while gaming will lead to 92c on the graphics card and thermal throttling. The processor will always be fine. I have repasted, use turbo fan, and a cooling pad. That 92c doesn't change.

The asus gpu 870/880m never went above 80c. Never, the 860m barely got over 75c at the highest. The asus with 870m is almost on par with the throttling 880m of the msi, and the 880m asus beats out the msi 880m.

The build and everything with the asus is just a++. The msi I an A. I love my msi, it does what I need. But if it were strickly gaming, I'd go back to the asus in a heartbeat.

I would get the Asus if I were you. Get the JM with 860m. Its the best performance/power ratio. Best battery life gaming or office usage. Gaming on 860 will get you 1.5-2 hours. Office light/moderate use 5.5 hours. Msi gaming will get you 1 hour, office/moderate use 3.4-4 hours.

Wow, thank you for the quick responses guys. So it looks like I'm getting two different opinions here.

Dblkk- Hmm, so it looks like you lean towards ASUS. 92c while gaming on the MSI? I've read some Amazon reviews, and most say there system never reaches over 80c under heavy load. Maybe you have a "defected" machine? I've also seen a review that said the fan position was messed up, and it blew all the air away from the CPU over top the GPU, resulting in a system shutdown sometimes and extreme throttling if under 100% load. Maybe yours is the same, just a bit less serious?

Anyways, I will not be playing extremely graphically demanding games. Skyrim, my main gaming priority, will be played on High settings (no AA) and will be played with a nice amount of mods, but none that affect performance. Will that cause heavy load on the GPU? I don't think so as much as if it were Battlefield 4 or Metro: Last Light. Will it be okay there? I'd like to hear from you guys.

Anyways, given that it has 4 star review on Amazon, the same as the ASUS, I think I'll get a bit better with my money if I go MSI. But I'd like to hear your opinion on that Dblkk. Otherwise, I have heard lots of complaints on how disgraceful the ASUS customer support is. That is one main reason I do not want to buy any product from them. At $1500, you would like some help and a friendly welcome to the family hello, not a "Send it back, wait 3 days for your $1500 defected product to return". I've also heard of many great compliments on MSI's hand, when it comes to customer support at the least.

Anyways, what do you guys think? I'll let this thread go on until about Thursday, and I'll make my decision there.

Cheers!

Well intels baytrail will also be out by end of year. Might as well wait for that to.

I'd take an Asus jz over msi.

Bottom of msi all open, Asus pretty sealed. Battery on Asus externally removable.
Keyboard on Asus more solid keys better typing, for me at least. Plus this is msi's first go, Asus not so much as theve had dual configs for 4+ years now

Is nvidea gtx860 better than gtx880 in rendering , i use revit,sketchup,lumion, v ray rendering , and sometimes 3d max.and i want to do gaming also like cod and crisis.
Alot of people advice to go for quadro but i feel they are over rated in price , and i hear they are bad in gaming
I was just wondering what is the best gpu , and the 860 is really much cheaper laptop comparing to 880 . And i need to save some bucks , as my original budget was 1500'so pls help

Any advice will be really appreciated
I aplogise for my bad english