Please look at this Gaming Setup and tell me what you think?

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

So I am trying to stay around the $1500 mark but I ended up going a bit over. I hope the specs I chose will be a descent build for some gaming. Not a hardcore gamer here. Please give me your opinion on it?

MSI GE60 Apache Pro-003
Display
15.6” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Anti-Glare Matte Type Screen
Processor
4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700HQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache)
Graphics Video Card
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 860M (2.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 w/ Optimus™ Technology
Ram
12GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-41814ZP] (Dual Channel Memory (1x4GB + 1x8GB SODIMMS)
mSATA SSD Drive ( Slot 1 )
128GB Samsung PM851 Solid State mSATA III
Primary Hard Drive
250GB Samsung 840 Evo SSD (Read 540MB/s - Write 520MB/s (SSD2 - SATA III)) (SKU – SSD016)
Optical Drive Bay
6x Blu-Ray Reader + 8x DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive (SKU - ODD002) ( + 65 )
Wireless Network
Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Dual Band Wireless-N 1202 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth 4.0 | Up to 300Mbps (2x2) (SKU - WIFI07)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio
Battery
Smart Li-ion Battery (6-Cell)
Operating System
WINDOWS 8.1 - 64-Bit (Pre-Installed)
Price
$1617.00

 

[dasulman]

yeah that seems a bit more than necessary really - you don't need 2 SSDs, you might as well just have the 1 120GB for games and then use a 1tb 7200 rpm HDD for everything else.
the 860M will play everything in todays market at high settings at 1080p or better. there's only a few games it can't max out over 30fps - its a fantastic choice for the price.
Oh and I highly doubt you'll need 12GB ram, if you can try and reduce it to 8GB unless you're doing a lot of video or graphics rendering.

 

[Rami Zerker Reini]

Looks really good but as stated you don't need 2 SSDs. 1 HDD and 1 SSD will do well.

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

Ok I will look into those suggestions. One thing, should I use the mSATA for the SSD or use a regular SSD?

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

yeah that seems a bit more than necessary really - you don't need 2 SSDs, you might as well just have the 1 120GB for games and then use a 1tb 7200 rpm HDD for everything else.
the 860M will play everything in todays market at high settings at 1080p or better. there's only a few games it can't max out over 30fps - its a fantastic choice for the price.
Oh and I highly doubt you'll need 12GB ram, if you can try and reduce it to 8GB unless you're doing a lot of video or graphics rendering.

Are you sure 12gb of RAM isn't a good thing? it is only $25 more than the 8gb

 

[Rami Zerker Reini]

yeah that seems a bit more than necessary really - you don't need 2 SSDs, you might as well just have the 1 120GB for games and then use a 1tb 7200 rpm HDD for everything else.
the 860M will play everything in todays market at high settings at 1080p or better. there's only a few games it can't max out over 30fps - its a fantastic choice for the price.
Oh and I highly doubt you'll need 12GB ram, if you can try and reduce it to 8GB unless you're doing a lot of video or graphics rendering.

Are you sure 12gb of RAM isn't a good thing? it is only $25 more than the 8gb

Are you going to need 12GB of RAM? 8GB is enough for gaming but if you render/edit stuff 12GB is a good thing.

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

Are you going to need 12GB of RAM? 8GB is enough for gaming but if you render/edit stuff 12GB is a good thing.

I guess it can save me $25 dollars for a gaming mouse or something.

 

[LizardProtection]

I wanted to buy Apache but then reconsidered, I saw GT60 Dominator 424 which has better graphics card, approximately two times more powerful (from specs I've checked) has no SSD though but still better for gaming if you ask me and it costs $1300 on amazon.

Apache looks good, is thin and light but if you ask me it's not that good for gaming, it will overheat fast and prolonged gaming sessions won't let it last.

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

I wanted to buy Apache but then reconsidered, I saw GT60 Dominator 424 which has better graphics card, approximately two times more powerful (from specs I've checked) has no SSD though but still better for gaming if you ask me and it costs $1300 on amazon.

Apache looks good, is thin and light but if you ask me it's not that good for gaming, it will overheat fast and prolonged gaming sessions won't let it last.

I have looked at the GT60. It does have a better GPU and I have been on the fence considering both of them. Do you have the GT60 now? If so how do you like it so far?

 

[LizardProtection]

I have looked at the GT60. It does have a better GPU and I have been on the fence considering both of them. Do you have the GT60 now? If so how do you like it so far?

I don't have it yet I'm considering to buy it in a month or so.
Judging from specs my conclusion is that GT60 Dominator 424 is better. Maybe we should ask somebody who has it.
8GB RAM is more than enough for gaming (if you are not doing some kind of video/photo editing as your job) and 870m should be able to handle whatever we throw at it at descent FPS on max. (30+ maybe even 40-50 may even go to 60 if you play around with settings like AA SMAA and so on.)

As one of the other members of Tomshardware said on my thread - I had similar question - GT laptops are better quality than GE and since GT60 is a bit thicker I would guess that it has better cooling. So, I personally would go for GT60.

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

As one of the other members of Tomshardware said on my thread - I had similar question - GT laptops are better quality than GE and since GT60 is a bit thicker I would guess that it has better cooling. So, I personally would go for GT60.

Yeah i agree. Now I have to decide SSD or mSATA and what one??? So many options

 

[LizardProtection]

Yeah i agree. Now I have to decide SSD or mSATA and what one??? So many options

I think this post may help you
http/www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-2009166/msata-ssd-sata-iii-versus-ssd-sata-iii.html

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

I see that back in the day mSATA was slower but now it is just as fast as a normal SSD. But I am thinking of getting like a 500gb SSD and not get a normal HDD.

 

[LizardProtection]

I see that back in the day mSATA was slower but now it is just as fast as a normal SSD. But I am thinking of getting like a 500gb SSD and not get a normal HDD.

If notebook is compatible with the SSD I'd say go for it.

Just for the record though I like having HDD with SSD just to throw all the "unneeded junk" in it. SSD space is precious.

 

[A_ST0RMTROOP3R]

I could understand that. I am also planning on getting another external 2tb HDD so that will suffice for "junk"