New line of MSI gaming laptops - worth waiting for?

whymantime · 26 Apr 2011 at 06:34

I've been looking around for a decent gaming laptop for around £1000 give or take £200, and I decided the GX660R was the best choice, but then I saw there's several new MSI gaming laptops coming out!

The two that grab my attention are:

MSI GT780R
Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7-2630QM (2.0GHz) Processor, 17.3" FULL HD (1920 x 1080) Display, 12GB (4GB x 3) DDR3 Memory, 1TB (2x 500GB 7200RPM) Hard Drive, DVD Super Multi Drive, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5 Graphics Card, USB 3.0 Ready, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

click here and marvel

The other one is the MSI GT683
It seems to be all the new tech in the older shell.
MSI GT683R Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7-2630QM (2.0GHz) Processor, 15.6" FULL HD (1920 x 1080) Display, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 1TB (2x 500GB 7200RPM) Hard Drive, DVD Super Multi Drive, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M 1.5GB GDDR5 Graphics Card, USB 3.0 Ready, Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

I've pulled those specs off a US site - the only place I could find them for pre-order. They're supposedly releasing on the 30th May.
The pricing is $1,599 and $1,499, the GT780 being the more expensive.
Bear in mind when the release in the UK they'll probably have slightly lower specs, since that seems to be the case with the GX660R.

So here's my dilemma.
I could either just buy the GX660R now, or I could wait for the new line to come out which will probably be in the summer for the UK. I don't want to wait for the new models to be released, only to find they're well over budget and the GX660R no longer being sold!

I have an decent enough desktop to use for now, but I need a laptop for uni in september, and I want the best laptop for my budget.

Any ideas? Thanks.

Brok · 26 Apr 2011 at 09:46

Kobalt G150/G170 with AMD 6970m is about the same price as the newer MSIs (assuming $ to £ price being 1:1 pretty much) .

You can get a G150 with 2630QM, 8GB, 750GB HD and AMD 6970m for £1373 inc vat

The 6970m should blow the GTX560m away.

BobbySixKiller · 26 Apr 2011 at 10:55

If you dont need it till September its best to hold fire for as long as possible to get the most bang for your buck

Brumboy · 26 Apr 2011 at 11:23

Might aswell wait if you can for more Sandybridge laptops to come on sale, the prices of the old i3/i5/i7's will drop aswell. Those laptops look very good though, I'm guessing they'll be really expensive

area512003 · 26 Apr 2011 at 12:23

Surprised that the MSI GT780R/683 Dedicated Gfx-560M comes below the 5870M in the GX660R (according to notebookcheck.net) if they are to be the new replacement MSI Gaming laptops. :confused:

morfmedia · 26 Apr 2011 at 13:12

I'm hoping to get Thunderbolt port in my next laptop but it's not looking too promising unless you buy a Mac at the moment

whymantime · 27 Apr 2011 at 03:05

Brok said:
Kobalt G150/G170 with AMD 6970m is about the same price as the newer MSIs (assuming $ to £ price being 1:1 pretty much) .

You can get a G150 with 2630QM, 8GB, 750GB HD and AMD 6970m for £1373 inc vat

The 6970m should blow the GTX560m away.

Ahhhh, I've not seen these kobalts before. Looks like really good value and they've adopted the new tech fast. Hopefully by September the price will fall within my budget. Only thing is that I'm really keen on the dynamo speakers in the MSI. Not heard them but they seem to get a lot of praise!

BobbySixKiller said:
If you dont need it till September its best to hold fire for as long as possible to get the most bang for your buck

Rossuk89 said:
Might aswell wait if you can for more Sandybridge laptops to come on sale, the prices of the old i3/i5/i7's will drop aswell. Those laptops look very good though, I'm guessing they'll be really expensive

You guys are right. I think I'm just gunna wait until august and then weigh up my options and go from there.

area512003 said:
Surprised that the MSI GT780R/683 Dedicated Gfx-560M comes below the 5870M in the GX660R (according to notebookcheck.net) if they are to be the new replacement MSI Gaming laptops.

That seems odd! I've read on these forums that the 560M is a bit more powerful than the 6870M but at a big cost increase, so definitely gunna be beter than the 5870M. Notebookcheck.net need to check their facts! Maybe something to do with early drivers?

morfmedia said:
I'm hoping to get Thunderbolt port in my next laptop but it's not looking too promising unless you buy a Mac at the moment

I'd not heard of Thunderbolt up until I read your post, but it sounds good! I'm not bothered about it personally because it will probably take years for it to become the standard.

Cheers for all the replies.

Rroff · 27 Apr 2011 at 03:14

Based on hardware specs the 560m should be a little faster than the 5870m and 6870m and closer to 6950m performance :S

whymantime · 27 Apr 2011 at 10:46

Had a look on notebookcheck and it turns out the 6870M is 3% faster than the 560M. The 560M is 5% faster than the 460M (lol) and 8% faster than the 5870M.

But this is just a 3Dmark 06 test so I don't know how much you can trust those scores. Looks like the 6870M is the one to go for for price/performance.