GT70 or GT60. Not sure which one to buy.

Hey everyone, I was wondering if I could get some input on buying these two machines. I recently returned a gt70 with a 670MX (CPU hit over 90c constantly) and I decided to raise the budget a bit. I really like this brand but... I'm stuck on these 2 models:

GT60 ONE - 403US

I7 3630 Ivy Bridge Processor
12GB RAM (3x4) 1600Mhz
GTX 680M
Killer Wireless N 1202
Killer Ethernet E2200
15.6" Matte Screen (1080p)
Blu-ray Writer/Reader
750GB HDD 7200RPM

1899.99 USD

GT70 OND - 492US

I7 3630 Ivy Bridge Processor
16GB RAM (4x4) 1600Mhz
GTX 675MX
Intel Centurio Wireless N 2230
Killer Ethernet E2200
17.3" Matte Screen (1080p)
Blu-ray Reader
750GB HDD 7200RPM + 128GB mSATA (Memoright MS-701 SSD)

1799.99 USD

I really love having a bigger screen for... well everything. Portability isn't an issue for me as (size and weight difference are small to me). The gt70 comes with an SSD to boot and judging from reviews it's a good one. While the gt60 has one less usb slot, it really doesn't matter to me. Wireless cards don't matter to me either. While the 675MX is nice, that 680M is sitting there only 100 bucks away.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to which model I should buy. I'll be using this for gaming and school work (computer programming, 3D design, accounting, etc. etc.)

Thank you for your time .

 

Well I'm assuming you're from the US, I could be wrong. However, if you are, you should head on to either powernotebooks.com or xoticpc.com and have a GT70 or equivalent barebone configured with a 680M. I think that would pretty much fill both your needs. And you will definitely get it cheaper.

 

Thanks for the suggestion and I'm from the US.

I probably would go through an online reseller but I get free shipping and a small cash refund if I purchase it through my mother's job (Really young college student here :thumbsup . On top of that, I get a free accident covered warranty for 2 years from a coupon (150$ value) and shipping takes a minimum of 3 days to get to my house. If the product is defective, I just take a 15 minute drive and drop it off at the nearest Walmart with zero hassle. I get credited back my money the next day and I just order another one. It's a pretty sweet set up but both online resellers are definitely enticing.

 

I have the GT70 276US and the 17 inch display is very nice.

 

The GT70 is really nice, I agree. I prefer the touchpad on it aswell but the GT60 is packing one heck of a graphics card. Judging from NBC gaming benchmarks, the 675MX is often close to the 7970M and sometimes even surpasses it in some odd cases (I take those with a grain of salt for the most part though). I guess it's more of me deciding whether I'll be fine with a 675MX or not.

 

Portability:
This really comes down to how often you take this computer with you somewhere. I opted for GT60-0NE 403 because I travel a lot. The 17" screen must be incredibly nice but I can't stand lugging anything extra around. When I'm at home, I have it hooked into an external monitor so size won't be a factor where I use it most. It is just not the weight I am concerned with but its also the size. I don't want it to eat up much desk space while I'm on the road. When I did own a 17" laptop I remember pulling that computer out of my bag and thinking....wow this is really large laptop. It was more than I wanted to handle.

Power:
I don't know what kind of power you are looking for, but the 680M is powerful and you pay a premium for that. Do you want to try and max/ultra out all graphics or is Medium/High good enough? This is subjective to you, the user, so nobody can tell you what to get here.

 

Power is probably my largest concern in comparison to how portable it is.

Weight and size definitely don't faze me but I can see how it'd quite annoying having to lug around the extra weight if you're traveling a lot. Size wise I feel that the places I go the GT70 would fare just about the same as a GT60 when it comes to desk space. My college normally gives us a mac to work at (even if it's not preferred for me) so there's no free space for anything. At home, the 17inch + external monitor set up is pretty nice for an extended set up and it's perfect for work.

The GT60 is packing a serious card that shuts everything else down but for me, it's at the cost of a larger screen and in my opinion, a better trackpad. Nothing beats a good mouse of course but the smaller screen is less attractive to me for everything. I often do dual monitor displays for several spreadsheets and screen real estate is a biggie. A smaller screen dictates how far I can zoom until I can't see anything clearly.

You're totally right about what's good enough for me in regard to power. That's honestly the one part I can't come to a conclusion with.

Thanks for the input .

 

GT60 or GT70, you're still getting 1080p, just a different pixel density.

 

I recently purchased the GT60 0NE from Gentech PC. First off email Ken with Gentech, I am sure there are other reputable companies but personally they totally earned my business and my future recommendations. Second, the 0NE comes with the Nvidia 680M. This card is supposedly a lot better than the 675M in the 0ND, that alone should make you go with the 0NE from the start. The only advantage I can find for the GT70 is the Super RAID configuration but according to some people on the internet the GT60 can also be set up with Super RAID. I mainly use mine for business and gaming (Skryim, COD, Witcher, etc.) I play everything on ultra with Skyrim being heavily modded and still running 60 FPS. In the end it's up to your personal preference. I am very happy with the GT60 0NE.

 

GT60 is more solid and generaly better.

 

The 675MX is still a great card. If you really want top of the line power, then by all means - go with the GT60. To pay $100 more for it and lose the 4GB of RAM, larger screen, and mSATA drive makes the GT70 seem like a better value to me.

But if power is what you're after, the 680m is definitely king over that 675mx - Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - NotebookCheck.net Tech

 

Is there anything wrong with the GT70 in comparison with the GT60?

Seeing a strong GT60 following. I may just go with that.

 

Lcd cover has no issue. It is solid like a rock . You can open it and close milion times and hinges/ brackets / covers will survive years. GT70 has some problems with it.

 

I saw it as a better value to me as well. I recently had the privilege of using a 17" inch screen. I'm a little spoiled by it now. If I don't get 50~60fps on ultra I'll probably be toning down the graphics. It seems like I'd be doing that on either card judging from NBC game benchmarks (FC3, GW2, etc.)

Thanks for the input everyone, I feel like I'm getting closer to a conclusion. Very helpful community indeed :thumbsup:

 

Ah yeah I did see that. Looked like a pretty rare occurrence from the thread I read. Did some googling of it too and I couldn't find anything (besides the original nbr thread). Thanks for warning me about that though .

 

I'm generally happy with my GT60. My only complaint would be the keyboard (occasional missed keystrokes), but based on what I can tell the latest batches seem to be much better in this regard. Actually one other complaint: why the hell wouldn't MSI have made the eSATA port powered? But I assume the GT70 suffers the same deficiency so it's not really a deciding factor.

 

I heard the newest batches were better. I didn't have an issue with the GT70's keyboard when it came to typing though. I'd imagine the GT60 would be the same for me unless the keyboard issue is only on the GT60. That eSATA issue is a little wierd in design, I'll agree on that. It's probably with both of them though.

 

I went ahead and ordered the GT70. Thanks a lot guys for the input and suggestions . While the 680M is nice, The difference seemed pretty small to me according to gaming benchmarks.

 

I think you would not have been disappointed either way, but I'm glad you were able to get some good advice from NBR users to make an informed purchase. :thumbsup: Let us know what you think of it when you've had some time to use it!

 

Walmart had a $100 price cut across the board and I had to cancel the order, I then decided to get the GT60 because Wal-Mart has a nice return policy and the SSD in the OND only has around 40gb free (I didn't think the OS would take up ~70GBs).

The GT60 definitely feels more "solid" in regard to the LCD hinge. Unfortunately I've definitely noticed the difference in size and it's a little small but it feels largely fine. It just came today so I'll play with it a bit more. The keyboard so far has no issues, Now getting GW2 installed and seeing how good this 680M is. I'll add that this Killer Wireless N is giving me major problems with connectivity. I haven't had such issues of random disconnects with the Centurio 2230

 

There is a fix for killer n in alienware topic. I prefer Intel wifi cards.

 

The 675MX scores around 4000 3dmarks while the 680M scores around 6000, so there is certainly a difference. But you do pay for it.

 

I just got done playing with it yesterday night. It's honestly a world difference. It's the difference of setting supersampling in GW2 and getting over 50fps and not having the setting on the MX cards. It's a real powerful card and the GT60 is really nicely put together. I ran into a little problem unfortunately and it's overheating like mad. With no oc and being elevated, it hits a max of 94c. With turbo fans and a cooling mat, its hits a minimum of 86c. I'm assuming a bad paste job from the factory. I'll have to return yet again since I don't want to kill the warranty by doing it myself. I think I'll stick with the GT60 though.

 

We normally have Intel cards in my house but this one came with Killer 1202 and I heard it was top of the line along with others calling it a gimmick and untrustworthy. I think I prefer Intel myself.

Thanks for the help.

 

It's either/or, people wont be disappointed with either. On the MSI machines what's nice is the LAN and Wireless are both killer with the 1202 wireless so it's just one driver package for both.

 

The latest MX cards are definitely nice. I oc'ed the 670MX memory clocks to get more bandwidth and it ran really well for the price. I decided to go premium since I don't plan on buying another laptop for a long, long time after this one is settled. A 680M can be absolutely fine for this generation and more than likely the next. After gaming on the 15", it isn't so bad. I don't have an external but this'll do since I get such a nice card.

I'll be sending it back and ordering yet another one . This card is running much hotter than normal on stock. Before I return it though, I'll see if drivers solve the wireless issue for future reference.

 

Does anyone know if the GT60 has smaller speakers/subwoofer in comparison to the GT70? My mother and brother noted that this one "doesn't sound as loud" as the GT70 and I feel the same way. I've only seen one complaint about the max volume from two users and both were about the GT60 (found it on this forum). If anyone knows if this is true, it'd be appreciated if you could let me know. Thanks for the assistance everyone.

 

How portable is a GT 70? I don't mean taking it around to town, more like taking it room to room in the house or sitting with it in your lap while you're watching tv?

 

The GT60 has an identical speaker setup.

The GT70 can be moved around the house just fine.

 

You can get GTX680M in GT60 with the GT60 0NE-249US.
Most of the features are same across the 2 model, just majorly size different.

 

The only real difference is screen size, do you want the larger screen and a heavier machine or smaller and more portable.

 

I have been trying to choose between the GT60 0NE 403US and the GT70 0NE 276US or 277US. Both of these use the 680M video card. The main differences for me are that these GT70s come with a RAID SSD array in addition to the hard drive, and the display viewing angle is said to be better on the GT60 - so that's one point in favour of the GT70 and one in favour of GT60. (Also the GT60 is cheaper.) Now some of MSI's publicity material mentions a Super RAID SSD option on the GT60, but I see no evidence of this in the models that are actually in stores. Does anyone know whether there are any GT60 0NE models that come with RAID or non-RAID SSDs (possibly mSATA) in addition to the main HDD? Or are there any GT60 0NE models that come with an unpopulated mSATA slot that I could put an SSD into? For me it's quite important to have separate OS and data drives, so does that mean GT70 is the only option?

 

The only GT60 models to ship with super raid are outside the US.

You still get 2 2.5" bays in the 15.6" machine so you can put an SSD in the main slot and a HDD in the second slot or a second SSD even as SATA II is fine for most tasks...

 

Thanks for the info. Actually, I'm outside the US, in Canada. But I guess you probably mean further away.

So are you saying the GT60 0NE 404US ( here, for example) will come with an unpopulated SATA 2 bay into which I could move the main HDD before adding a SATA 3 SSD into the main (presumably SATA 3) bay? That would be pretty nice.

 

There's 3 GT60 Super Raid models sold here in Seoul.

MSI GT60-i7 ONE SuperRAID(GTX680M) 750GB + SSD 128 GB(2 x64GB) @$2800

MSI GT60-i7 OND SuperRAID(GTX675MX) 750GB + SSD 128 GB(2 x 64GB) @$1800

The ONE is $900~$1000 more than the OND

An older GT60 with a GTX670M is marked down to near $1400

There's a hefty VAT included to almost everything sold here.

The above named models are sold without an OS.

The laws prohibit consumers being forced to buy an OS they maybe don't want.

BTW,I've heard that owners of a Super Raid compatible model can carry their notebook into the MSI notebook service center and have a Super Raid adapter installed at an unknown cost.

 

The following connector amounts apply to both the GT60 and GT70 along with their barebones:

Super raid editions:
2x mSATA (gen 3), 1x 2.5" SATA (Gen 2), 1x ODD (optical disk drive) SATA (Gen 2)

Non-super raid editions:
1x 2.5" SATA (Gen3), 1x 2.5" SATA (Gen2), 1x ODD SATA (Gen 2)