Laptop: MSI GS60 Ghost Pro or Razer Blade 2014

[Ericde95]

Still waiting for a review...

 

edit - Are you planning on taking it apart? Really want to know if there is space to expand storage-wise (msata or another m.2). Obviously you just got the thing so it's understandable if you aren't

 

Sorry, life has been crazy! I actually started writing a full review on here and when I went to upload the photos the website crashed and I lost all my work. Therefore I raged quit and havent tried again lol & no, I'm not going to open it until I need to. I have worked on laptops before and have replaced my fair share of HDDs, but I don't think I want to mess with the warranty on such an expensive laptop. My college has given me 130GB of cloud storage space, so I am totally fine with 256GB +130GB + 1TB External HDD haha

[Hawx]

Wait are the SSD slots on the Razer laptop user-accessible? Or is it really tedious to get to? And does it have 2 slots?

Yes it does. A quick google search will find multiple guides on how to upgrade the SSDs of the blade.

[AlexStriz]

Yes it does. A quick google search will find multiple guides on how to upgrade the SSDs of the blade.

Well most of the upgrade videos are on the previous gen blade. That one has two msata ssd drive slots. However, the new one is only confirmed to have one M.2 ssd slot. So far I have not seen any teardowns on the 2014 blade.

[Ericde95]

I have posted my review of the Razer Blade 14 here:

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/151503-razer-blade-14-unboxing-review-2014-edition/

[AlexStriz]

Just found out that Gigabyte is making a new 4k Aorus laptop that is coming out later this month. Might be something worth waiting for. Why does the decision always have to get harder 

[Ericde95]

Just found out that Gigabyte is making a new 4k Aorus laptop that is coming out later this month. Might be something worth waiting for. Why does the decision always have to get harder 

Hahaha I feel the pain. That Aorus sounds interesting! Unfortunately, it will also be victim to the scaling issues that i stated in my review Maybe they will SLI 860s or 870s this time?

[AlexStriz]

Hahaha I feel the pain. That Aorus sounds interesting! Unfortunately, it will also be victim to the scaling issues that i stated in my review Maybe they will SLI 860s or 870s this time?

Scaling will be a pain for a while, but once the issues are fixed I think it will be worth the wait. SLI with the new 800 series would be amazing but would suck battery like crazy. 

[Luis]

I'm in the same boat, Can't make a decision yet on the GS60 Pro or the Blade 2014. its going to be a work/gaming on the side as most of the real gaming will take place on my main rig. The only thing that is really holding me back from the blade is the heat issue everyone keeps mentioning, I prefer the looks of the blade in a professional setting.... also the storage for the price. so I guess its more than just the heat.. *sigh* , I think i'm going to wait for Linus to do a review of the Blade 2014 before I pull the trigger. 

[Nickolas47]

from theese two go for the blade

[Ericde95]

from theese two go for the blade

Already did, read my review of the laptop!

 

I'm in the same boat, Can't make a decision yet on the GS60 Pro or the Blade 2014. its going to be a work/gaming on the side as most of the real gaming will take place on my main rig. The only thing that is really holding me back from the blade is the heat issue everyone keeps mentioning, I prefer the looks of the blade in a professional setting.... also the storage for the price. so I guess its more than just the heat.. *sigh* , I think i'm going to wait for Linus to do a review of the Blade 2014 before I pull the trigger. 

I chose the Blade, check out my review that I linked  above! I definitely feel the build quality of the Blade alone is worth not having a HDD (although I don't really use that much storage and have a desktop with plenty of space).

 

Scaling will be a pain for a while, but once the issues are fixed I think it will be worth the wait. SLI with the new 800 series would be amazing but would suck battery like crazy. 

Yeah I feel. It will be interesting to watch how Gigabyte balances their GPUs with such a demanding screen.

[road_sigma]

I am currently faced with the same decision and am willing to wait for the Ghost Pro 3k. I have read the entire thread above and also your review thread.

 

Although, I will be using the laptop away from a charging point quite often, though not for gaming. So can someone please comment on the battery life of these two? I've heard the Blade has been criticized for bad battery life and the GS60 seems to be rated even lower in terms of 'Wh'.

 

It would be a great help if someone could throw in a ball park for the battery life of the Blade and the GS60 (Though battery life of the Ghost Pro 3k version is anybody's guess)

 

Apart from that, I gotta say, as tempting as the Blade's sexy design is, I'm leaning more towards MSI for practical reasons.

 

Thanks

[Chey1789]

Reasons to consider the MSI Ghost: 

 

Ethernet Port

 

Reasons to consider the Razer Blade:

 

Battery Life

 

As for bringing your desktop rig to Georgetown, forget about it. No freshman dorms have room for them, and the only upperclassman housing where it could work would possibly be (depending on the unit) Copley, Henle or a Townhouse. If you plan to game while at school, you'll need a laptop that can handle it. 

 

Something to bear in mind is that wifi at Georgetown is still really, really new. I just graduated this past weekend, and we didn't really have proper wifi on campus until my sophomore year (before then, it was only in certain parts of some academic buildings). Now, most dorms and academic buildings have some wifi, as does the library, but it still sucks. You'll want to use a wired connection, and that's when having an ethernet port on your machine really shines. Note that some buildings are wired for fiber, so you'll have to use a fiber converter to get an ethernet connection, but it's worth the effort and jack on your power strip. Wifi outside is pretty non-existent, so it's a non-issue. 

 

Where the Razer Blade shines though is in battery life. Georgetown classrooms are notoriously sparse in terms of outlets (I once had a ~50 person lecture with a single outlet). Everyone has back to back classes at some point, and something like the MSI is going to die way faster than the blade. 

 

That being said, if I had to do it again, I'd go for the Blade with an ethernet to usb converter. 

[Ericde95]

Reasons to consider the MSI Ghost: 

 

Ethernet Port

 

Reasons to consider the Razer Blade:

 

Battery Life

 

As for bringing your desktop rig to Georgetown, forget about it. No freshman dorms have room for them, and the only upperclassman housing where it could work would possibly be (depending on the unit) Copley, Henle or a Townhouse. If you plan to game while at school, you'll need a laptop that can handle it. 

 

Something to bear in mind is that wifi at Georgetown is still really, really new. I just graduated this past weekend, and we didn't really have proper wifi on campus until my sophomore year (before then, it was only in certain parts of some academic buildings). Now, most dorms and academic buildings have some wifi, as does the library, but it still sucks. You'll want to use a wired connection, and that's when having an ethernet port on your machine really shines. Note that some buildings are wired for fiber, so you'll have to use a fiber converter to get an ethernet connection, but it's worth the effort and jack on your power strip. Wifi outside is pretty non-existent, so it's a non-issue. 

 

Where the Razer Blade shines though is in battery life. Georgetown classrooms are notoriously sparse in terms of outlets (I once had a ~50 person lecture with a single outlet). Everyone has back to back classes at some point, and something like the MSI is going to die way faster than the blade. 

 

That being said, if I had to do it again, I'd go for the Blade with an ethernet to usb converter. 

Wow! I am honored to have the advice of someone who just went through an experience that I am about to embark on. I truthfully am thrilled to have another Georgetown student's experience/opinion. If it makes you feel any better, I already did what you said and have a beautiful Blade sitting next to me right now. I will start looking into a usb->ethernet converter now. Hopefully this wifi situation improves over the next four years!!!

 

 

 

EDIT: Just ordered this adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812232044

[devowilso]

I am currently using the msi gs60 1080p version and I really enjoy it.  I bought the 2013 version of the razr and took it back for the msi.  I have some idea of what the 2014 blade will be like from my experience with the 2013 version. 

The blade will be more portable then the gs60 and it is a nicer build. The msi has something about it that I really enjoy.  It feels like your getting a lot and certain things about it are just better. Its a great lap top and I think they did something right when they made the gs60

[agentagent47]

i ill buy a lenovo y510. it's cheap had a i7 prossesor witch is more than enough because mobile GPU never bottleneck,NEVER.and it have ultrabay in it soo it can add more GPU to ur laptop and run it in SLI.

if u want to gaming just build a PC don't buy a laptop.

if you want to mobile gaming just buy the normal 1366x768 screen doesn't need to be full HD. if you want it just wait until you go home.

It's best to gaming on a PC.

u can get much for $ 2200

you can get i7-4770K

a lot of SSD

a lot of RAM

you can even buy nividia 780 TI

and it's upgradeable

[road_sigma]

#64

 

Can you Please comment on the battery life that you are getting with your GS 60?

 

Also, I know that the power brick (Adapter) is quite bulky compared to razer, but can someone post exactly how heavy it is? Does it render the laptop completely non-portable?

[liljuny]

Just gotta give reps out to Ericde95 and everyone who has posted some awesome information on this thread.

I too was torn between the GS60 3K vs Razer Blade 14. (Then now there is Gigabyte Aorus 870M SLi... though concluded that 17" is a little too cumbersome for me, specs looks very impressive on paper!)

 

Just wanted to thank all on here, I went for the Blade in the end and should be getting it early next week. If I can run recent games at decent framerates at 1080p and do other things at 3K resolutions then I'm all up for it. GS60 3K was really tempting at coming in at around $800 less and with more storage. But the deciding factor for me was pretty much the same as Ericde95's:

 

Sleek unibody design

Higher resolution

Build quality (I have 2013 MacBook Pro Retina and a big fan of the form factor, which is getting factory reset for a upcoming sale, bye bye Mac.)

Also touch screen (my office laptop (Vaio Pro 13) has touch screen and I'm a fan of it specially if the trackpad does not live up to Apple trackpad standards)

 

And probably get a bit of thrashing but yes... a bit of a Razer fanboy here.. massive victim of their marketing and their green and black design. (Damn you Min-Liang Tan)

 

Lastly, the review out on the Blade 14 out there are very very good. I've not come across a bad review yet.

 

Will see how I get on with it when I get it. Though wondering to see if anyone picks up the Gigabyte Aorus 870m SLi.

 

All in all the upgrades they made since the last Blade seems substantial enough that this time they finally got my money..

Although I am attending E3 so I may have looked for an industry "discount" but my impatience got the better of me..

 

Cheers.

[liljuny]

I got a RB14 in the end, initial finding on Ericde95's other thread along with some pics 

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/151503-razer-blade-14-unboxing-review-2014-edition/page-3