Worth it?

*I ACCIDENTLY POSTED THIS ON THE OWNER'S LOUNGE SUB-FORUM*

Hi there guys! I am struggling between two laptops: the Clevo P170SM and an MSi GT70 2OD.

I actualy wanted to go for an €2,6K MSi GT70 2OD (780M, i7-4700MQ, 16GB Ram, 2x 128GB SDD), but recently I discovered an Clevo dealer in my country (the Netherlands).

I can get an GT70 2OD with:

- i7-4700MQ
- GTX780M
- 16GB 1600 Ram (Don't know what brand)
- Win 8
- 2x 128GB SSD (Again, I don't know what brand)

Price: €2,6K

I can get an P170SM with:

- i7-4700MQ
- GTX780M
- 16GB 1600 Corsair Vengeance Ram
- Win 8
- 1x 250GB Samsung 840 SSD (for Windows and other crap), 1x 500GB Samsung 840 SSD (for Steam and other games)

Price: €2,3K

My question is, is it worth it? Is 2 SSD's overkill? I plan on installing my Steam games and Win 8 (+ all other things like web browsers, office etc.) on both seperate drives.

The only thing that's holding me back is that I am an MSI fanboy, and the look of Clevo's. I think they look kinda boring. I also realy like the customisable backlit keyboard from MSi. But yes, I know the P170SM is a much better deal.

 

P170SM has a customisable keyboard does it not?
I'm on the other side, I hate the look of MSI and prefer the simpler look of the Clevo.

2 SSDs aren't overkill at all, but as far as I'm aware the Samsung 840 is a very good drive, one of the best, if I'm not mistaken. Not sure what drives the MSI have.
Go for the Clevo, cheaper and better spec'd.

 

A single larger ssd is faster than two smaller ones in all the important ways.

 

Allright guys, Clevo it is than.

I also realy do like the look of the new Clevo's, but apprently they are not (yet?) avaible in my country, which is a shame.

 

They are in quite a few places in europe now so it should not be too l9ng I wouod have thought.

 

Allright, I gues I will play the waiting game than.

 

Many resellers also ship internationally, as well. But hopefully they become available locally to you very soon, so you are not burdened by international shipping charges.

 

Hey, not hating clevo or anything, I was going with it initially - was actually on clevo/sager forum for about 2 years, but with new designs .. well lets say, I decided to go with MSI.

I really don't know whats all the fuss about SSD's. With my current 2 mSATA in super raid, everything boosts pretty much immediately.. windows startup takes max 5-6 seconds, I dont know why would you want to go beyond such speeds.
The sound from DYNaudio speakers is amazing. Steelseries keyboard feels awesome. And the aluminium design .. well, I guess going from my previous Sony Vaio - its a huge step.
Plus couple cool features like fan boost etc.

For some reason, I think its a better choice for me
So if you have any questions, you can pm me, and I will give you my opinion from a beginner perspective..

ps. again. not hating clevo, dont worry

 

I just don't think I'd take the mainstream MSi GT-series over the 16F3/1762 barebones route.

The RAID SSDs, huge amounts of RAM, gimmicky features, and overtly flashy chassis just inflate the price beyond what I deem acceptable.

 

A single drive 256GB or larger. Less than that usually decreases performance considerably. Larger drives just maintain performance longer because they have more space so it wears at a slower pace.

And with the cost of 480GB to 512GB drives becoming quite affordable it's not a bad idea to go big. You can get the Crucial M500 960GB for $600, which seems expensive but it's 1TB of very fast storage.

 

I did not put the full disclaimer on that to keep it simple, but it depends on the density of the NAND chips.

With the new high density chips like the crucial M500 you need double the amount of storage to saturate the full channels that the controller can use (as each NAND chip has the same number of connections but twice the number of die) so the 480GB and the 960GB have the highest performance for them.

The older NAND based products tend to max at the 256GB level yes but since he was talking about the 128GB SSDs and the 240GB I did not think that was needed information.

 

Is there any argument against just going with the M500 960GB? I'm really leaning towards making that the single storage solution in my next notebook.

Constantly budgeting with this 119GB (usable) SSD has me wanting to go in the complete opposite direction, as far as space.

 

Its not the fastest or most consistant device. A sandisk extreme 2 can pretty much be filled and keeo going.

 

In pretty much an identical spot as you.
MSI is so damn expensive in Australia, with SSD models reaching over $3000.

The cheapest I can pick one up for is $2700, and that's with a 500gb 5,400 drive. So I'll have to install my own SSD.
Meanwhile, I can get a Clevo for about 2k.

The thing is, the fact that the MSI is reportedly so much quieter is almost enough to sway me.

 

First time post, so please forgive anything out of whack.

I've also been trying to decide on a good value 17" gaming laptop with pretty similar specs to what you're looking for. Got it down to Clevo vs. MSI and was about to pick MSI mostly due to reported less noise (reported better keyboard and sound were added bonuses). But, then I just read this ( AnandTech | MSI GT70 Dragon Edition Notebook Review: Haswell and the GTX 780M), which indicates that the cooling for the MSI is insufficient and actually hurts performance because it causes throttling. Maybe that's the reason it's quieter.

Now I feel like I'm back to square one. Maybe leaning back to Clevo p170sm, though the reported fan noise is a major concern. Maybe I should even start considering Alienware, but I'm really looking for value and from the forums, seems like their price-to-what-you-get ratio is significantly off from Clevo and MSI.

Any direction / help from members who know this space would be greatly appreciated.

 

Nah man, ain't gonna order from anything outside of Europa. Shipping + taxes are ridiculous.

Thanks for the tip/help, but I will go with Clevo. After reading an article about the horrible cooling of MSI that someone else posted in this thread, I just go with Clevo.

Agreed.

Yup, it's totaly ridiculous.

Thanks for the link to that article. Now I am totaly convinced about not buying MSI.

Thanks for the tips/help/recommendations everybody.

 

Yeah, good link. Thanks.

I was pretty much swayed today to splurge a bit extra and grab a GT60 with a 780m... but that article has really made me seriously reconsider.

 

hmm interesting. have no issues at all..

p.s. just read the review. this is nowhere near to be true, and perhaps is an example of fan issues or most likely, poor paste job.
Noone gets such temps in MSI GT70 thread except those with issues.

Bare in mind, although MSI operates on 1 fan, it is still one of the biggest fans on the market. It also has a fan turbo boost, which can decrease temps by 20%+ under a couple of minutes.