MSI GT60 review for music production (former MacBook Pro user)

Question

Due to the upgrade limitations of MBPr (Macbook Pro Retina) I decided to try Windows after 7 years of using OSX. I chose the MSI GT60 over a Mac product by a close Margin and I still have doubts about windows 8.
The GT60
The hardware:
1. The casing - coming from a Mac, this casing is disappointing. It's not cool, sexy or anything. It's "plastiky" and the design looks like something from the late 90s. you're not impressing any chicks with this one and it's nothing I'd take to Starbucks.
2. The Keyboard - Excellent. It has a nice feel and the lights are kinda cool, but don't make up for the ugly design.
3. The Mouse pad - too small and cheap looking. It tries to hang with a MBP mouse, but it's not as responsive and fluid.
4. Connections - I can't think of any other connections I would want.
5. Ram Capacity - Blows away the Mac at 32GB. This comes in handy for music projects loaded with plugins and is one of the major reasons I went for this box over a Mac. 
6. Super raid 2 - This is another cool option Apples don't have in their laptops. The ability to add 3 ssds in addition to another storage drive really makes this a lucrative music machine. Loading samples quickly greatly improves workflow.
7. Screen - This screen is good, but vs a retina...well...you know.
8. Optical drive - Mine is ...strange...sometimes it works sometimes it don't. Maybe w firmware update will fix it?
Performance - I loaded a Cubase project that even my Older 12 core Mac Pro had to wrestle with. That Mac Pro had 40GB of ram. Well, this GT60 pass with flying colors and with the most resource hungry plugins loaded it operated at an average of 60% CPU and 10 of the 12 GB of ram. I'm interested to see if more ram may help improve performance and/or reduce CPU usage.
Heat Myth - I read in other forums (and ofcourse ASUS) of the
so called" heating issues with the MSI Laptops. I do believe, by theory the ASUS gaming box may run cooler, but all the jibba jabba of overheating I never experience. The GT60 is not loud and it's not hot.
Overall, I find this to be a cool laptop for music production but if I didn't need all the extra ram or drives I'd probably stick with a MBP. They look way cooler. If MSI had put this hardware inside of an enclosure like that GS70 (but bigger), It would be cool.

Answer 1

While this is a review, let me just comment on a few things....
Part of the reason that half of what you get is possible, is because of how large it is.
You wouldn't be able to get 3 mSATA SSD's if you didn't get a GT60/GT70.
You wouldn't be able to get 32 GB of RAM if you didn't get a GT60/GT70 (actually, I guess the GE60/GE70's can handle that too).
The GT series also has a more beefy video card that requires more cooling than the GE or GS series laptops.
Either way, the GT60 is a great notebook overall. The screen could be better, but it's not bad by any means either. Compared to many other similarly or higher priced notebooks, it's just as good or better IMHO.
The keyboard is actually very nice, and while the backlighting is somewhat gaudy at times, it's nice to be able to see the keys in the dark.
The biggest downfall (personally) is the screen hinge and the back of the screen and how flimsy it is. That's honestly  my biggest gripe about the notebook. I always feel or think I'm going to break the screen when I open or close the notebook.
Have you messed with the built in sound card at all? Got any thoughts on that?