I'm planning to buy MSI for gaming...

My benQ s41-447 has failed me. the nvidia 8600 m gs has failed at 31st december 2009, fortunately it's still covered by warranty but I'm uneasy because this laptop might break again because the chips are faulty.

I'm thinking to buy MSI for replacement. I dont really play heavy 3d games like crysis, maybe the sims 2 or 3, but most of the time I only use my laptop to write, occasionally testing pcsx2 or dolphin emulator because I cant access my consoles at the moment. I have played most of the games I want to play, so it's not a big deal even if the laptop couldnt run the emulator in high fps.

anyway, at the moment I'm interested with two model of laptop:

Notebook MSI EX300
Core2 Duo P7350 2.0Ghz, Intel PM45, 13.3" WXGA, 2GB, 250GB, 2.0MP Webcam, DVDRW, Ati Radeon HD3450, Wifi, Card Reader, Bluetooth, HDMI, Fingerprint, DOS. price: about $685

OR

Notebook MSI EX460
Core2 Duo T6600 2.2Ghz, sis 672, 14.1" WXGA, 2GB, 320GB, 1.3 Mpxl Camera, DVDRW, Ati Radeon HD4330, Wifi, Card Reader, Bluetooth, DOS. price: about $640

I also read the msi laptop using SiS chipset, is it more inferior than the intel chipset? is there any performance difference with the intel ones? (I dont really know what these chipset really do, I would be very glad if someone could give me information)

does anyone use these laptops mentioned? does msi have good customer service? It seems BenQ has a bad customer support as I read in the BenQ forum.

I basically looking for any non-nvidia gaming laptop that are less than $700, but good enough for moderate 3d gaming. let me hear your opinion.

 

Well between those laptops i say go with the EX460
benchmarks on the cpu and gpu on that laptop are better than the first. MSI does have decent customer service but if they fail you Frostycomputers is awesome when coming with MSI computers helped me out like 3 times even when my warranty died he made MSI take a look at it even when i called and MSI said NOPE we dont cover it.
Crysis - GPU Benchmark (2007)
low:
30.7
[X] Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 2.1GHz 2048MB RAM
Mobility Radeon HD 4330 (450MHz), 512MB (500MHz) DDR2, ATI Catalyst 9.2
fps
med.:
17
[X] Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 2.1GHz 2048MB RAM
Mobility Radeon HD 4330 (450MHz), 512MB (500MHz) DDR2, ATI Catalyst 9.2
21
[X] Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz 4096MB RAM
Mobility Radeon HD 4330, 256MBGDDR3,
~ 19 fps
high:
9.6
[X] Intel Core 2 Duo T6570 2.1GHz 2048MB RAM
Mobility Radeon HD 4330 (450MHz), 512MB (500MHz) DDR2, ATI Catalyst 9.2
fps
those are the benchmark of the 4330! hoped i helped.

 

If i had to pick, I would also say go for the ex460. But honestly, I would try to find the msi laptops with the ati 3850 or ati 4670. the 4330 is not that great of a card.

 

Well, there have been some complaints about them, too. Just google.

A quick check is always a good idea before doing business.

 

Or you could wait? new machines are coming out soon?

 

Both of them are bad, even for light gaming.

This Toshiba is a cheaper and better option.

 

wow, it's pretty cheap, but is it powerful enough since it's dual core with only 1 mb cache (I dont really know what is the performance difference between 1 mb or 2 mb cache)

the closest I could get is Toshiba Satellite L510-P4014 (Dual Core T4400 2.2Ghz, 1GB DDR3, 320GB, DVDRW, Wifi, Bluetooth, Camera, Ati Radeon HD4570, 14.1 WXGA, DOS) priced about $685, the more expensive one is Toshiba Satellite L510-S4314 (Core 2 Duo T6600 2.2Ghz, 2GB, 320GB, DVDRW, 14.0 WXGA, Bluetooth, Camera, Ati Radeon HD4570, Wifi, Win 7 Home Premium) about $910... but I think the latter one is a bit expensive for me.

I'm still accepting suggestion guys, so keep them coming.

 

I would just save up until you can buy one of the newly announced msi notebooks (the ones with the ati 5000 series gpu's).

 

Yea, I like the looks of the MSI GE600.