markr54632

Unfortunately there aren't any reputable reviews on rtx laptops. You were given good advice. Wait. Nothing anybody says is going to help you. If you are interested in the rtx line up wait until reviews are out.
 
Even if the rtx 2060 is 50 percent faster if it thermal throttles it may not outperform the 1060 in real world loads.

Reviews are very easy to find and they have hit store shelves already. Msi needs to fix the problems in their lower end laptops. Unless you are looking at their gt series they make garbage.

Doubtful that it would effect you in any way.
The real question is do you want to support a company that engages in shady practices like this? They repeatedly make the news for shady dealings with peoples data and more recently intellectual property.

Yes, but then again so will using it normally. Batteries have a finite amount of charge cycles. There are supposedly ways to extend battery life, but honestly none of the special charge cycles they reccomend has made a difference for me since the days of nimh and nicad batteries. Use it the way you want to and replace the battery when the time comes.

You can quite literally just buy a single monthly pack with no recurring payment.

Really depends on the program the student is studying. In my program all three of those would be borderline unusable. I would check with your school and teachers if possible to see if you will have any special requirements.

Not really, usb power delivery and thunderbolt are 2 completely separate standards.

You had a bunch of questions I will try to summarize what I can based off experience.
 
Ceramique 2 is a very good paste for bare die longevity. Not the best performer, but it performs very well. I tend to prefer ic diamond for higher performance applications.
 
K5 pro can be used anywhere a thermal pad was used previously.
 
As for carbon pads, the ic graphite does not perform well in low pressure mounts ie laptops and graphics cards. It is also highly conductive if it becomes dislodged.

Mx-4 is horrible on bare die applications. It pumps out rather quickly 1-2 months.
 
Try something more viscous for a bare die.
 
As for pads fujipoly pads are usually considered the best.
 
K5-pro is my favorite though as it performs ok, you dont have to buy multiple thicknesses and it is easy to apply.

30-50 usd

30-50 usd

They discontinued that model unless you can find a used one. Looks like the 17+ is still up for now.

those are mostly useless

Honestly your in the right ballpark as far as price, I rarely say this, but you might be a tad low on price. 

My gs series laptop has been exchanged 6 times now. Msi actually has pretty good customer support.
 
I've never experienced so many qc issues. Constant driver issues every time a windows update comes out. Their bios update procedure is archaic, their embedded controller that controls the fans has constant issues, God forbid you ever have to flash the ec as the process is super outdated has a high risk of bricking the laptop and is not covered under warranty.
 
 
Ultramale's experience is atypical as he has a gt75. The gt line seems to actually have average qc and adequate cooling.
 
Alienware has some decent models, research each model number first. Notebookcheck and notebookreview are good sources.

You are looking for a device that will need a 130-180 watt charger that can be charged via usb-pd which supports a maximum of 100 watts. Even if you find a gaming laptop that supports usb-pd the best you can hope for is a slower draw.
 
You could always get an ultrabook that will charge via usb c and an egpu. Although this will blow your budget out of the water.

Kind of what was said above. SFF is a royal pain. Alot of them have arbitrary power limits on the PCI express slots that keep you from running anything but a 1030 or 710. Power supplies are super dinky and proprietary.
 
Buy a mini tower. My favorite at the moment is the dell 7010. Newegg has a 7010 with a i7-3770, 16gb of ram, and a 1tb hdd for 250. Slap a rx580 in there for 200, a 500 watt psi for 30-40, and spend the rest on a cheap ssd.

I get that this was supposed to be funny, but I actually had a book just like that ages ago. 

Your gonna get the same reccomendation everyone gets. Used thinkpad.

The y7000 looks nice if you turn the rgb cancer off.
 
The acer aspire a515-52g is way below your budget (save it for books, you will need it) has an mx150 for very basic games.

NEVER buy an msi laptop from best buy. There are several threads, but the bottom line is you get the worst or the worst qc wise and they put cheaper display panels in the best buy skus.
 
If you do opt for a current msi model buy elsewhere. Although honestly the only thing worth its weight in landfill from msi right now is the gt series.

NEVER buy an msi laptop from best buy. There are several threads, but the bottom line is you get the worst or the worst qc wise and they put cheaper display panels in the best buy skus.
 
If you do opt for a current msi model buy elsewhere. Although honestly the only thing worth its weight in landfill from msi right now is the gt series.

NEVER buy an msi laptop from best buy. There are several threads, but the bottom line is you get the worst or the worst qc wise and they put cheaper display panels in the best buy skus.
 
If you do opt for a current msi model buy elsewhere. Although honestly the only thing worth its weight in landfill from msi right now is the gt series.

Mx4 is the worst thermal paste I have ever tested in bare die applications.
 
On a laptop bare die you want the most viscous thermal paste possible to avoid the pump out effect.