Stuck between two gaming laptops need some input!

[Shadowlid]

Ok Ok I know you see about 10000 of these a day but I have weighed the options price tags and I have narrowed it down to two candidates. Both have their trade offs and im stuck between which to get.
I am working overtime this summer to save up for one of these so im doing as much research as I possible can to make sure I make the right choice. I have narrowed it down to the MSI Gx-60 and the Lenovo Y500(with 650m sli). Both have a price tag of $1099.99 on Newegg. Both have great graphics options.


Pros for Gx-60

Upgradeable, easy to access all hdd and rams slots etc.

Power graphics (Radeon HD7970m)

Battery life(Due to switchable graphics and low tdw of A10-4600m)

Nice screen and good keyboard


Pros for the Lenovo y-500

Powerful CPU(Core I7 3630Qm)

Good graphics (650m sli)

Backlite key board

Ultrabay(For other options and removable 650m)

Cons for Gx-60


Weak processor compared to GPU

Non backlite keyboard


Cons for Y500

Hard to upgrade/access ram etc.

Good graphics may cause shuttering

Poor battery life due to sli configuration(cant use nvidia optimus)

My main purpose is Portable gaming and school work. I go to school 1hr and 30min away from my house so when I come back home lugging my desktop back and forth to my rental home is not a option.

Also I want good customer service and a dependable product. My current gaming laptop a
Asus g53sw-xn1 has a power plug issue even though I have babied it since the day I got it.

So which one would you chose and why? Games I play in list of most played ARMA 3, ARMA 2, Borderlands 2, BF3

I dont expect to be playing them on ultra on full hd. But my current laptop can play all games listed with acceptable Fps. But when playing ARMA 3 and Arma 2 I want to be able to turn the view distance at least to 6500 feet.

Thanks all for the information and opinions ahead of time.

If you currently have one of the listed laptops please pm me if you dont mind me asking lots of questions dropping 1k on a laptop for a broke college student is no joke I need it to be the right choice!!!!

Thanks,

Shadowlid

 

[Anonaru]

Ok Ok I know you see about 10000 of these a day but I have weighed the options price tags and I have narrowed it down to two candidates. Both have their trade offs and im stuck between which to get.
I am working overtime this summer to save up for one of these so im doing as much research as I possible can to make sure I make the right choice. I have narrowed it down to the MSI Gx-60 and the Lenovo Y500(with 650m sli). Both have a price tag of $1099.99 on Newegg. Both have great graphics options.


Pros for Gx-60

Upgradeable, easy to access all hdd and rams slots etc.

Power graphics (Radeon HD7970m)

Battery life(Due to switchable graphics and low tdw of A10-4600m)

Nice screen and good keyboard


Pros for the Lenovo y-500

Powerful CPU(Core I7 3630Qm)

Good graphics (650m sli)

Backlite key board

Ultrabay(For other options and removable 650m)

Cons for Gx-60


Weak processor compared to GPU

Non backlite keyboard


Cons for Y500

Hard to upgrade/access ram etc.

Good graphics may cause shuttering

Poor battery life due to sli configuration(cant use nvidia optimus)

My main purpose is Portable gaming and school work. I go to school 1hr and 30min away from my house so when I come back home lugging my desktop back and forth to my rental home is not a option.

Also I want good customer service and a dependable product. My current gaming laptop a
Asus g53sw-xn1 has a power plug issue even though I have babied it since the day I got it.

So which one would you chose and why? Games I play in list of most played ARMA 3, ARMA 2, Borderlands 2, BF3

I dont expect to be playing them on ultra on full hd. But my current laptop can play all games listed with acceptable Fps. But when playing ARMA 3 and Arma 2 I want to be able to turn the view distance at least to 6500 feet.

Thanks all for the information and opinions ahead of time.

If you currently have one of the listed laptops please pm me if you dont mind me asking lots of questions dropping 1k on a laptop for a broke college student is no joke I need it to be the right choice!!!!

Thanks,

Shadowlid

Off the top of my head, I can tell you I've had a disproportionate number of Lenovo Y500 customers in my shop. The m-SLI configuration seems to have some base driver issues, and even when those get resolved there tends to be issues with the laptop considering the two devices as seperate GPUs rather than configured in SLI.

I've always been able to get them fixed, but the number of issues is a bit on the large side. I also consider SLI an option you should hope to avoid if you can help it, its quite often more trouble than its worth, even in a mobile setting.

 

[Knufire]

Remember that Haswell might be out by the end of the summer...forcing you to revamp your options again.

 

[Anonaru]

Remember that Haswell might be out by the end of the summer...forcing you to revamp your options again.

I didn't even think of that personally-- good call! Temesh and Richland by AMD are starting to make way into laptops too, so AMD has some new offerings in the works also