I need some laptop help!

[Krotuskang]

Brace yourself! Gonna list my rant and questions for help

So my laptop is 905 days old now. ( yes I keep track of this ) But its finally starting to show signs of ware that I can't really ignore any more. Now to give you a short history of where its been! I got my laptop right out of AIT, Then we went straight to Afghanistan for a year. I carried it all over that place. But its starting to boot up with the ol' no os found message every now and then. I swear its getting twice as hot as it use to and twice as fast now. I now my ram seems slow, and my resources seem to be maxing out WAY faster than they should. Other than that I love this laptop.... its been dropped, kicked, sand stormed, abused sorta. Its still running strong for what it is now.

Old Laptop....
Toshiba Qosmio x505
18.4' screen
i5 m 450 (2.4 ghz)
360m nvidia
4 gigs of ram
750g hard drive

Now I have decided to start the quest for the perfect replacement.
I have a desktop sitting back home collecting dust with the best money could buy.

Now I need a laptop that will be used mostly for school and have the ability to play computer games. I'v came up with 3 atm
not really sure if I can post new egg links but.... thouse are the model numbers ;D
MSI GT Series GT70 0ND-444US (i7 2.4 ghz with 675m 17.3 screen)
MSI GT Series GX60 1AC-021US (a-10 2.3 ghz with 7970m 15.6 screen)
TOSHIBA Qosmio X875-Q7380 (i7 2.4 ghz with 670m 17.3 screen)

If you guys have any ideas please feel free.

 

[PP Mguire]

Well to be frank:
From being dropped HDD could be going bad or have corrupt Windows files. Easy fix.
Heat is due to dust. Needs to be dusted out real good. The little heatsinks get a solid layer of dust that completely blocks air flow and makes laptops get real hot quick. When this happens the CPU and GPU start to throttle causing a massive slow down compared to what you're used to.
Not only that, if it's the same install from when you first got it you'll find a ton extra running in the background due to things being installed over time. A few blasts from a high powered air compressor and a fresh install of Windows will fix this right up.

On to the question, IMO if you have a desktop with the "best money can buy" then you don't need a power house laptop. The ones you have listed off are all about 1500 or so. Pretty steep if you aren't gaming, but your money.

Out of the ones listed, the first one would be my pick.

 

[Krotuskang]

well, my desktop is back home.... I am at this army base for the next 8 months so I like to have a gaming laptop when I head out to lan partys. Since i run a full size, water cooled tower. Not very fun to lug around when you can have a laptop lol. Yeah, I am mostly trying to get a laptop in the 1,200 range max :s I prefer amd over intel all day. Things seem to be coming down to gpu's.... I want a 670+ but I read that the 660m is only 10% less in preformance. I also would like to find one with windows 7.

 

[PP Mguire]

Intel CPUs are just better hands down, and have been for quite a long while.
Not sure about that percentage being accurate, but a few here will attest to the 660m being a good mobile GPU.
Unfortunately you will need to buy a separate copy of Windows 7 and install it if you want it.