Which laptop is would be better for gaming? MSI GE72 i7-5700HQ or ASUS GL552VW

[chrisbek]

I am looking at 2 gaming laptops and I can't decide which one I should get.

Hoping someone can help.

MSI GE Series GE72 2QD-405US Apache Pro Gaming Notebook
- 17.3" (1920x1080) Intel i7-5700HQ(2.70GHz) 12GB 1 TB HDD
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB DDR3 Win10
Regular Price: $1359.00
Sale Price: $1199.00

http/www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_1199&item_id=087894


The second is ASUS GL552VW ROG 15.6" Gaming Notebook Intel Core i7-6700HQ
Regular Price: $1299.00
Sale Price: $1187.00

http/www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=1198&item_id=088300

I like the MSI laptop as it has a really nice backlit keyboard that is customizable, excellent sound system and the track pad looks decent. The build quality and the materials used look amazing. The downside is it comes with 12 GB of ddr3 ram and any to upgrade would require removing the warranty stickers to get at the guts of the computer to perform any upgrades such as an SSD or RAM upgrade.

I like the ASUS laptop but in reviews I read & watched the laptop has poor build quality due to it mainly being made out of plastic. The lid, keyboard and even the hinges of this model are the biggest of concerns as they have a lot of flex to them because of the plastic design.

However despite build quality the ASUS laptop has excellent specs in terms of performance. It also very easy to open the laptop up and upgrade the RAM (accepts up to 32 Gigs) and SSD drive without voiding any warranties.

I am half minded at the moment and can't decide which would be the better performing machine.

Hoping someone can tell me which would be the better buy in terms of what I am looking to do.


1. What is your budget $1360.00 after taxes

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering 15.6' or higher

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080p

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

5. How much battery life do you need? 3 hours do do surfing/internet usage

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.

High/Ultra Settings

Games I wish to play mainly are:

a) CS:GO
b) Farcry 3 & Farcry 4
c) Sniper Elite 3
d) Any high demanding first person shooter
e) Various Steam games

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Website design, Office, C/C++/Visual Basic programming, Install Linux and create a dual boot system with Windows.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 500 GB free space is more then enough.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links

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

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? CD-ROM read/write burner

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. No preference.

13. What country do you live in? CANADA

 

[1shado1]

I've told you before that MSI's general position on the warranty stickers is that if you open it up to perform RAM or drive upgrades, you will not void the warranty as long as you break nothing inside while doing so. I'd go for the MSI. ASUS' build quality seems to be starting to slip a little.

 

[gosteen]

I actually have an MSI GE72-2QD 405US (12 GB RAM, etc., etc.). I'm currently using it to search around to fix some rather major bugs with the i7-5700HQ CPU. The machine has performed fairly well over the past 2 months but I have had to deal with some minor annoyances.

In the past, I have opened several MSI laptops for others and I can tell you with certainty that MSI still treats opening the machine casing as a warranty violation. Usually, for upgrading RAM and what-not, it's a non-issue but it still voids the warranty.

Some points of interest from my experience:

• 
  ■ The HDD installed in the GE72-2QD is 1 TB but a good portion of it is partitioned for a secondary drive that appears to have little to no purpose. For my own use, I resized the partition to provide more space to the main drive.
  ■ The sound seems pretty quiet without headphones. This may be the fault of Windows 10, however.
  ■ No installation media or Windows license information was provided so reinstalling the system is questionable. (pretty much killed my desire to use Xen on it)
  ■ The i7-5700HQ is known to have a couple serious bugs which can cause MCEs(Machine Check Exceptions). This is seriously annoying when trying to work within VMware(as I am..and which ultimately brought me here via Google).
  ■ The build quality of the outer casing feels solid and comfortable.
  ■ I can't figure out how to change the color of keyboard backlighting(not a huge issue for most, though).
  ■ The keyboard layout is a little weird(but I'm from the US and bought the laptop during a visit to Canada so...yeah).
  ■ Windows 10 is an awful plague.
  ■ The battery life doing virtually nothing(even with wifi & bluetooth disabled, screen dim and no programs running in the foreground) is not fantastic.
  ■ The dual fan cooling is pretty awesome and works quite well. It's also not nearly as loud as I expected.
  ■ The software bundled with the laptop is pretty useless, overall.
  ■ The 960M isn't bad(especially compared to the 760 in my desktop) but it's not great for bitcoin mining, if that's an interest.

 

[1shado1]

■ I can't figure out how to change the color of keyboard backlighting(not a huge issue for most, though).

There should be a program called "Steel Series Engine" on the laptop which is used to change keyboard lighting.

 

[bob0011]

Have a look also at the Dell Inspiron 7995, Its a little cheaper than the ones you mentioned and opening does not void the warranty to change ram hdd etc.

http/www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family

Linus Tech Tips did a good review of it a few days ago on youtube.

Pros:
-nice screen
-about 10 hours battery life on the HD model
-the 8GB of ram comes in one stick, so easy to add another
-the cheap model has a free M.2 slot free for a ssd
-Doesn't look to gamer themed

Cons:
-Track-pad is not the bes
-Keyboard is not the best.

 

[1shado1]

Have a look also at the Dell Inspiron 7995, Its a little cheaper than the ones you mentioned and opening does not void the warranty to change ram hdd etc.

http/www.dell.com/ca/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family

Linus Tech Tips did a good review of it a few days ago on youtube.

Pros:
-nice screen
-about 10 hours battery life on the HD model
-the 8GB of ram comes in one stick, so easy to add another
-the cheap model has a free M.2 slot free for a ssd
-Doesn't look to gamer themed

Cons:
-Track-pad is not the bes
-Keyboard is not the best.

Saw Linus' review. He was quite impressed with it for the money. But according to the link given, when configured similarly to the two he is considering, the Dell is actually $100 more. It also doesn't come with an optical drive, which the OP wants. Still worth a look, though.