New semi-gaming laptop for Christmas...

[Sleepingforest]

Seriously, at 1080p, the 670MX will be enough. If you're really worried, you can go with the Avadirect deal and spend ~$1400 on a laptop with the 675Mx but no backlit keys.

 

[Talaii]

I am currently leaning towards a Clevo clone.

If you don't already know Cleavo, Eurocom, Sager, and Pro-Star are basically the same thing. I think Clevo makes some Alienware laptops as well.

If you go over $1500 these folks have $100 off:

http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=24011

So for a little over $1500 after coupon code I can get the 7970m with an i7, lighted keys etc...

Clevo is the ODM. Eurocom, Sager, Horize, metabox, etc buy the chassis, assemble the notebook and provide support. But they are all (essentially) the same laptop.

Alien ware used to do the same thing, before they got bought by dell. Now they come from the same place as all the other dells.

 

[lakedude]

Your order confirmation number is:
Adorama Order No: A20121217...


MSI GT70 0NC-494US 17.3" Full HD Gaming Notebook Computer, Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4GHz, 12GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB HDD, Windows 8 Multi-language 64-bit

Special Price
$1,299.99

 

[Sleepingforest]

I think you made a good choice. Personally, the backlit keyboard and decreased price is worth it over the 7970m.

The only thing you have to worry about now is if the keyboard starts to look garish or gaudy to you.

A review by a big notebook reviewing group: Notebookcheck. It's a bit old, but the information about the screen quality, ports, and audio should be spot-on.

The same group's review on the 670MX shows that it should run everything on high or medium with a reasonable framerate.

Now, they are based in Germany, so take their price/performance analysis with a grain of salt, as things often cost more there by a significant amount.

 

[lakedude]

Picked up the new toy today and it is really nice.

Love the sound, the screen, the keyboard, the CPU, and the GPU. The hardware is pretty awesome. The keyboard back-lights can be any color or white or they can give you a light show (silly but cool). Performance on 3dMark05 is over 4x the score of the old laptop.

The only things I don't like are:

Size and weight. I know I said I didn't care, but not only is the laptop heavy but the power brick heavy as well! My old laptop is also a 17" but it is a skinny fashion model compared to this MSI. I guess it needs to be big to hold all the awesomeness in...

Windows 8, OMG what a nightmare. I knew how to do a few things from the video reviews but what a pain in the neck. Gotta figure out how to boot to desktop and turn that metro crap off. The pain does not end once you get to the desktop. I gotta stop or I'll rant all night long!

 

[Sleepingforest]

Think about it this way: you can turn off charms, the Start Screen can be adapted to serve as a large start menu, it's got under-the-hood power saving and security improvements, and once you're gaming, you can't really tell what OS it is.

 

[lakedude]

How do you turn off Charms? I tried to disable Metro features with Power 8 but they still pop up.

 

[Sleepingforest]

http://mobile.betanews.com/betanews...windows-8-charms-bar,5033c226444f6789472832a2 is an article on disablin charms with a registry change.

 

[lakedude]

Thanks

Got it done by turning off Edge Swipe which was triggering Charms and other Metro features to pop up unexpectedly.

It wasn't really Charms that was the issue, it was edge swipe with the touch pad.