Which gaming laptop?

[linkzeppelin]

1. What is your budget? Would rather spend below $1200 but could fork out $1300

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 17.3"

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? desktop replacement

5. How much battery life do you need? doesn't matter

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? Skyrim - med high, Minecraft - maxed out, MW3 - med, Black Ops - med high, Portal 2 - high

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Multitasking

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Only want one HDD so I can later upgrade and add a SSD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. www.newegg.com www.tigerdirect.com www.pro-star.com

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3-4+ years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Need a DVD Writer, would like a Blu Ray

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. Asus - cool design, good cooling, easy upgrade MSI - cool design, easy upgrade, nice keyboard

13. What country do you live in? US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

There are two laptop's in particular I was looking at, the G74SX and MSI 780.
MSI - http://www.pro-star.com/index.cfm?mainpage=productdetail&model=GT780DX-PS1
ASUS - http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=637440&CatId=4938
Which would be better to buy? Why is the MSI cheaper even though it has a 570m while the ASUS only has a 560m? Should I buy now, or wait for the announcement of the G75 series and see what happens?

 

[jaguarskx]

If you want to play games on high at 1920x1080 resolution, then I cannot recommend any laptop within your budget. You need at least a nVidia GTX 570m or Radeon HD 6950 for that resolution. Laptops with those GPUs generally start at around $1,600.

At best you can get nVidia GT 560M in your price range. That should be able to handle medium quality graphics @ 1920x1080.

 

[jaguarskx]

I didn't notice the links at the bottom of your post.

Since the MSI laptop has a nVidia GT 570M, that would be my pick. The Asus only has a GT 560M.

 

[ZanderFX]

The MSI doesn't come with an operating system is one reason for some of the price difference. It still looks like the MSI is a better deal though.

 

[linkzeppelin]

So the MSI at $1230 is better than the G74 at $1299? Is the cooling adequate on the MSI, because the G74 has an amazing cooling system.