[private giveaway inside] <<<<WHAT>>>>>need help laptop help

Well I have been very happy with my ASUS laptop but some peeps don't necessarily recommend the brand but I love mine - especially the illuminated keyboard. Can you afford the extra bucks for the bigger screen and the upgraded graphics card?

Budget laptop and gaming? What type of games?

specs are pretty good imo, but i gotta ask why not get a desktop pc and built it yourself (cheaper & even better parts), also a desktop can be upgraded later.
Aside from that, if you got the money, go for it.

in my opinion there are better ones for same or less price. but i need some more information. what is important for, what is necessary, whats a no-go.

e.g.: the hd and gpu is bad for that price at ur first example

What is your budget btw? I can probably take a look for you at some other sites.

Edit: Seems like your budget is around $1500 USD to $2000 USD. I'll take a look but you'll have to keep in mind the extra charges for intl. shipping.

I would say you have good taste in laptops! I like the fan layout of the MSI. (ya I know all that and I comment on fans) They are very important though. Boards with the Nvidia GPU were once notorious for failing because of heat. Nice to have one dedicated fan pulling from the GPU and one from the CPU.

I have no knowledge on laptops, but the differences fromt he first to the second one aren't so huge for the extra $500.

If I were you, I'd just get a desktop. Works better, is cheaper, can be upgraded, etc.

As above poster said, you should shop around a little more and tell us what you want/need in a laptap so we can help.

If you have to choose between the 2, i would go for the MSI. 17inch screen is great, but having the SSD will also help alot. Put games that take loads of time to load on the ssd and gain a big boost in load times.

All I can say is you either spend hours on understanding, and learning about hardware specs, or you go into a local (decent) computer store, where you talk with an actual expert, who can help you, give you suggestions, and rate/upgrade your idea about what to get. Here, on the internet you can't tell if some1 is experienced, and know what's up or just says some random stuff.

Buying a laptop is for 2-3 years I would say, so making the right decision is key, that's why you should actually meeet a real specialist, and even after you should go on tech forums of the product/manufacturer you want to buy from, and search for user reviews, and check the forum topics about that specific hardware.

I really whish I did that too when I bought my Nvidia card, instead I struggled for weeks with the faulty updates, which were not compatible with older cards, which actually resulted in getting my card broken, and now I have to run a 3rd party software to govern and control my card so it can function.

TLDR: Look for a decent specialist in a local store, consult with him/her, and chech the forums/user reviews of the product you are planning to buy.
Good luck!

Any reason why you'd rather game with a laptop over desktop? Maybe wait till steam machines are released before you commit to a decision.

All prices are in USD and doesn't factor cost of international shipping. I'll add links in a bit.

First laptop ($1,740): 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ, AMD® Radeon™ HD 8970M (4.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11, 16GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS), 1TB 5400RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s], 6X Blu-Ray Reader + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, ~Windows 8.1 - 64-Bit (64-Bit CD Included) + MS Office 2013 Trial, Batman Arkham Origins

Second laptop ($1,863): 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache), NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780M (4.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 w/ Optimus™ Technology, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-444CP] (Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB SODIMMS)), 1TB 5400RPM (SATA II - 3GB/s), 6x Blu-Ray Reader + 8x DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, WINDOWS 8 - 64-Bit, Assassin's Creed IV+Splinter Cell Blacklist

Third Laptop ($1,939): 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache), NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 780M (4.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 w/ Optimus™ Technology, 16GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-444CP] (Dual Channel Memory (4x4GB SODIMMS)), 1TB 5400RPM (SATA II - 3GB/s), 128GB Solid State Drive mSATA, 6x Blu-Ray Reader + 8x DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, WINDOWS 8 - 64-Bit, Assassin's Creed IV+Splinter Cell Blacklist

Fourth Laptop ($1,264): 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache), NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M (3.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11, 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS), 1TB 5400RPM [SATA II - 3GB/s], 6X Blu-Ray Reader + 8X DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, ~Windows 8.1 - 64-Bit (64-Bit CD Included) + MS Office 2013 Trial, Batman Arkham Origins

Fifth Laptop ($1,323): 4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4700MQ (2.4GHz - 3.4GHz, 6MB Intel® Smart Cache), NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M (3.0GB) GDDR5 PCI-Express DX11 w/ Optimus™ Technology, 8GB DDR3 1600MHz [SKU-812P] (Memory (1x8GB SODIMM)), 1TB 5400RPM (SATA II - 3GB/s), 6x Blu-Ray Reader + 8x DVDRW/CDRW Super Multi Combo Drive, WINDOWS 8 - 64-Bit, Assassin's Creed IV+Splinter Cell Blacklist

$1500-1800 AUD is plenty. Lemme see...check out Horize laptops.

Link

You can customise each build which adds or subtracts from the total price.

Personally, i would recommend a desktop. You can save money that way and get better performance, but to answer your question that first laptop is a pretty big beast. That's also a very hefty price tag for a laptop, but you will get your moneys worth.

NOT A FKIN HP! ann but one of those craps...

i think lap 1

I'm not a specialist, neither do I have any idea of computer stuff prices over Australia, but based solely on what you gave me, I think the first laptop is good enough. The only "problem" (not really a problem per se, but maybe the bottleneck) is the Hard Drive.

I don't think the $500 difference is justifiable for the second laptop, since on the same website, you seem to be able to get a SSD (solid state drive, much faster, so, you won't have the bottleneck on the hard drive anymore) addon for $99 (it doesn't say the size, though). A 128GB OCZ SSD is going for $120 on the same website.

Hope it helps. Good luck. :)

EDIT: Just for clarification, is the giveaway for Bioshock Infinite or exactly what it says there? ;)

Second laptop has a bigger screen (17"). You want that for gaming. I'd go for the second one because a bigger display, slightly better videocard and the SSD hard.

Best gaming laptop are still Alienware, but they are expensive as hell. They are also highly customizable. Unfortunately not in the range of your budget.

More interesting are the ones proposed by bigzgod. Hopefully, he'll give you the links to check them.

The MSI is decent, but the Asus you're linking is not technically their gaming laptop. I have one of their G75VW's from last year, and enjoy it well enough.
You can see the model list here:
http://www.asus.com/ROG_ROG/Notebooks_Products/

Go for the first laptop ?

Asus laptop is solid, go for it or their Republoc of Gamer series, I have one of those, G73JH and been running 4 years strong.

I have no idea 1700 au$ = how much in usd but I can recommend this article. Highly recommend MSi. You won't regret it.

lel

The laptop in edit 4 may be your best choice. Overall, a desktop would be cheaper and more powerful for the money, so I have no idea why everyone wants a "Gaming" laptop. Laptops are small enclosed spaces that hold heat well. They were never intended for intense processes like gaming. Make sure you keep it on an external fan and such if not just a hard flat surface. It will throttle if it becomes too hot, and produce a worse gaming experience.

If it's down to those 2 brands go for the MSI. I had and then returned 9 ASUS N56 series laptop for issues such as: x2 screens not powering on with the laptop, x3 misaligned clickpads that wouldn't register left or right click, x2 with graphic card issues that even with updated drivers would entirely shut down the machine whenever you tried to play games, x2 wonky keyboards with permanently depressed keys one with a screen bezel that was pulled away by 1-2mm on all sides.

TL;DR - ASUS build quality is a crapshoot go the MSI.

If he's asking for a laptop, he most likely needs to carry it around. Don't tell him to get a desktop.

I had a decent desktop and after a couple years I had to buy a new laptop because I had to move and, considering I would have brought it to University as well, my desktop was no use to me.