Depends on what you need the laptop for. As a "gaming" laptop, it's decent in terms of specs. If you need that, the one Compass linked is probably better (MSI makes low quality laptops), but don't be ghetto and buy the OS. Pirating the OS is not a good idea, lol.
That said, I personally would not get a "gaming" laptop. They suck as gaming machines and they also suck as portable laptops: You get a combination of low performance by gaming PC standards, the worst build quality (to let you get good specs at a cheap price), poor reliability (thermal issues), crappy battery life, and a horrible screen (both of those use cheap TN panels, again, so you can get a fast CPU at an affordable price.)
Not to mention, laptops meant for consumers are crappy even without considering the above... :| They tend to die mysteriously, with the gaming variants dying quicker.
If I was getting a laptop, I'd rather get something smaller, lighter, more durable, with better battery life and a higher quality screen. Something like the business class ThinkPad X250. Review
here. It's military spec tested and you can pour water on it. xd Fiberglass construction with an inner magnesium frame. Customized with some stuff useful stuff like an i5 processor, 1080p
IPS display, AC wireless, 8GB RAM... it's a bit more expensive and with lower specs:
[Image: http://i.imgur.com/ZfA6sEl.png]
Lenovo often has really good discount coupons available, so you will probably be able to get a better deal on this if you wait.
If you want the laptop for school/work/travel and you don't want it to die after like 3 years, then I'd get something like this. Just keep in mind that it will be
terrible for gaming compared to the previous two, as it's limited to Intel graphics on a single channel memory setup.