I didn't know you're in the US, that makes it much easier.
I wrote a very long response below, but first you should try this:
You should sign up for a Barnes and Nobles Account for Lenovo
You should sign up for a Student Account for Lenovo
You should check out the Lenovo OUTLET website.
Where to buy your components in the US from a online retailer?
step 1.
Go to
MSI Notebook Website and look through the model numbers.
I suggest this one for you:
MSI Notebook Product Specifications
notice that the top level model number has multiple sub-model numbers, all related to either the GPU or number of mSata or Sata ports.
i.e.
- Graphics & Video Module
- ? 937-16GA22-009
- NVIDIA? Geforce GTX660M, 2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
- ? 937-16GA12-005
- NVIDIA? Geforce GT650M, 2.0GB GDDR5 VRAM
MSI has several different model numbers for each barebone, one is the SKU, one is the internal corporate MSI model number, the other is the barebone system integrators' model number, and the other sometimes is the equivalent MSI prebuilt model number.
You'll see most of the good companies that supplt this will list all of the model names for the exact same model, this isn't as complicated as it sounds.
Next step is to search Google for those submodel numbers, search for something like:
MSI 937-16GA12-005
AVAdirect, costcentral, superbiiz, amazon, ebay, beachaudio, compsource, provantage, and also a large number of custom notebook builders will sell just the stock barebone.
MAKE SURE THEY HAVE THE ITEM IN STOCK AND NOT "ON SPECIAL ORDER", if in stock you get it in a week, ,... "ON SPECIAL ORDER" can take months...!!
Next, find your CPU of choice.
ARK | Your source for information on Intel? products
This is somewhat easier, you have Superbiiz, AVADirect and CostCentral as the big retailers of mobile CPUs in the US. There are others, and you can gamble on EBay, but those 3 are the big sellers:
https://www.google.com/shopping/product ... coring:mrd
The RAM and SSD/HDD you can pick up in hundreds of locations, be aware that MSI whitebooks for 3rd generation i-5 and i-7 mobos ONLY RUN up to 1600Mhz RAM. DO not spend extra money on 1866Mhz or 2000Mhz RAM if you have a budget. Save that money for something else.
Here is a general reply I give people, and especially since you seem to have a PC running at the moment, you can save serious money by only buying the RAM and HDD/SDD items found on sale, one at a time...
'[R-COM wrote:LITOralis.nMd;1867815']
My general reply to those in the US asking for websites:
Quote:
My suggestion is based upon finding the best prices, not on specific hardware...
start checking online deals websites daily:
my personal preferred bargain hunting websites:
Amazon.com Warehouse deals on SSDs. (I picked up a Crucial M4 256Gb SSD for US$149 in November, which was cheap then and is still cheap now, it was an open box return that had a total of 12 power cycles used, i.e. almost brand new.)
slickdeals.net
fatwallet.com
bensbargains.net
dell.com outlet deals in conjunction with coupons I find on the web.
amazon.com Gold box deals
email subscription to newegg.com for their daily deals
email subscription to us.ncix.com for their weekly deals
others I check from time to time:
techbargains.com
subscribe to tigerdirect.com email daily deals.
subscribe to buy.com email daily deals.
Sign up for accounts on slickdeals.net and fatwallet.com
You can create keyword searches that are instantly emailed to your email address you sign up with,
set up email deals alerts for "Radeon" "gtx" "psu" "i5-2500k" "ssd"
set up a filter in your email to put all those alert emails to a single folder.
you'll get some desktops and notebooks mixed in the emails, but it's a pretty good otherwise.
depending on where you live,
microcenter.com
frys.com
hhgregg.com
ncix.com
All run deals for brick and mortar retail stores.
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But its a bit outdated, so look in better options 
)