Ok going to go fr the GTX970m.

Among the brands, which should I go for?

Aftershock seems to be the best bang for the buck
Alienware has quite a bit of bloatware added into the cost + slow HDD
Illegear and MSI seem more pricey compared to counterparts.

Any ideas/recommendations?

If I were you, I'd go for MSI. Reason is because like a Macbook, they provide the best inside parts in any laptop for gaming I've seen. Killer LAN is one of their well known term for a super strong WIFI receiver. That's just one example among the many.

yup.. msi has quite some variants of gtx970m model to choose from - gt72, gs70 or gs60, and now got the latest ge62 steelseries multicolor keyboard is a kill.. haha

Of coz! I sold quite a few MSI's myself in this forum itself. All satisfied customer so far with NO warranty issue at all. Not even ONE.

Just get the one which you like the best. Cause most of these model spec is almost the same.
ILLEGEAR and MSI indeed seem more exp. ILLEGEAR is having CNY promotion now so it may be better to get it and the price/spec will be even with other model also. Their service is good, no doubt.
MSI high end model also are very good. If you're going for GE62, just wait for review before purchase.. You don't want to purchase a laptop which may have heat issue potential right ?
MSI is quite OP IMHO, those "features" they provides is quite normal, for me just a marketing strategy. KILLER WIFI or KILLER LAN is also available in ILLEGEAR, AFTERSHOCK and AW. It's not exclusive to MSI also.
For the Keyboard backlit, AW is also programmable so still not exclusive. Well it's up to you anyway
For me Aftershock and AW is the best bang of buck. AW is the way to go if you can ignore the slow HDD

P/S: you can also consider Asus ROG G7551JT, it is also a very good option, good built quality also. JUST YOU NEED TO GAMBLE YOUR LUCK ON ASUS WARRANTY. Capped it in case you can't see it. Asus warranty is very bad most of the time.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I think Ill deffo keep an eye out for promotions and stuff.

Yea going to buy it this CNY. Hope for some great discounts!

AW is alienware?
dont u think AW is so overprice?

This new generation of AW15/17 is not so overpriced. Probably due to BGA processor or price competition with other brand. But with that quality and after sale service of Alienware, the price could be reasonable enough. Plus, you could get discount roughly a 10% from them, if you ask for it through sales agent live chat.

Lenovo Y50 with GTX 960M is coming in March..

Source

Price is more or less RM4590

Just show that marketing gimmick works for MSI just like how Razer did with all the gaming peripherals which most progamers on a competitive level do not use (koreans still use DT-35 as their godly keyboard for 300+ apm).

Anyways, the slower HDD is good if you are concerned with battery life which I guess is the reasoning behind it. Personally, I don't mine a slow HDD as some games have loads of interesting information during the loading (DA:I is the most recent one I encountered)

The current AW 15 / 17 is not OP like last time. And there is surely promotion also. And Dell service is well known to be very good. So I think the price is worth it.

Depend on usage. So far Acer V15 still satisfying.

Luckly i hold my purchase to bought Y50, coz i know there gonna be an updated version coming this year, but still thinking whether the updated Y50 or GE62 2QE? i know the GE62 come with GTX 965M but which one have better cooling? already got a powerfull pc mostly use for gaming and graphic design but still need a laptop for study. sorry for my bad english

This post has been edited by heavy rain: Feb 12 2015, 07:41 PM

Y50 and ge62-2qE has identical cooling capabilities
BUT the cureent y50 is terrible in its screen color.

GTX960 = GTX860 in higher clock. Nothing special
If Y50 still equiped with same lausy screen, i doubt it will get good sales

Even though, a lot of ignorant buyers still buy it. What they see probably are just i7, GTX 9XX and that price.

Damn the more I look and review at all the model that I can buy the more dizzy I'm on which to choose... between some Illegear model with all the freebies or MSi ge62 2qf or AW15 that I can get staff discount. My Budget is below 5.5K. Help me guys

I would recommand you either Clevo (Illegear/Aftershock) or Alienware in the term of build quality and cooling system.

Choosing Clevo is better if you like to overlock or upgrade your CPU and GPU in future.
Else, Alienware is better.

Please take note on the difference between i7-4710MQ & i7-4710HQ.

MQ = PGA - CPUs are inserted into a socket which means they can potentially be upgraded in the future.
HQ = BGA - CPUs are soldered directly into the motherboard (embedded) which makes them extremely difficult / impossible to replace the CPUs without proper equipment.

Only good about HQ is cheaper and slimmer. You would see all slim gaming laptop are only using HQ.

As newlich mentioned, Clevo or AW is the best bang of buck IMHO.
But do note, AW and some Clevo model is also using Soldered GPU and CPU. Most slim type laptop (< 30mm) is using soldered type gpu and cpu including AW 15/17.
Those with MXM model doesn't come cheap and mostly it will be quite thick.
If you want MSI GE62, DO NOT RUSH for the purchase. Wait for more gaming review (not benchmark) to know whether it is having heat issue like its MSI GE60 or not.
I personally prefer Clevo and AW in this case. If your you want 970 or 980m gpu, Asus ROG is also a consideration also if you REALLY DOESN'T care about warranty and their services. Asus built quality is good and their price is also reasonable compared to MSI

The best option now is just GTX 900 series.

Even next Skylake also use 900 series at the beginning.

The future Pascal GTX 1000 series, long time to wait lor, Q1 2016.

The Pascal prices include GST must also be more expensive than 900 series.