MSI Pulse GL66 Gaming Laptop: 15.6" 144Hz FHD 1080p Display, Intel Core i7-11800H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Win10, Black (11UGK-001)

I got this laptop primarily for gaming purposes. I had purchased an Oculus Quest 2 and wanted to try PCVR gaming. Out of the box I'd rate it a 4/5. I got some graphical VR glitching every now and then and some slowdown. Then I upgraded to 32GB of RAM and WOW that made all of the difference! No slowdown at all playing games like No Man's Sky VR in mostly Ultra settings. That is by far the most demanding VR game that I own. All other games play buttery smooth. I ended up needing more hard drive space as 1TB just is not enough anymore. Adding more space was super easy since there is an extra NVME slot on the motherboard. I recommend putting copper heatsinks on the NVME drives as well to keep them nice and cool. The other thing I recommend is getting into the BIOS into the advanced settings and ramping up the cooling. Your laptop will live longer. You have to do some magic to get to this hidden BIOS menu but there is documentation out there on the internet to get to these hidden options. Also for best VR performance, I bought a DLink VR Bridge (used with the Oculus Remote Desktop app for wireless VR). It creates a Direct WiFi 6 connection to the Oculus. I'm not gonna lie, I've got some money wrapped up in this laptop, but fully worth it! The only real downside is the heat. Since this beast has copper tubing running all through it to cool it, don't expect to do hard core gaming on your lap without a cooling station underneath it! Those fans just push that hot air out like a rocket....onto your lap. For VR gaming, I just set the laptop on its side and set it on the floor. That allows cooling to happen without roasting my legs.

Is it an 85watt Rtx 3070? Yes.That aside, this thing is fantastic. I use it for hardcore gaming(Tarkov, XCOM 2, Elden Ring, etc). I also use it for my professional work. I have a hub plugged into the USB C with plenty of ports to give me three monitors total as well as more USB 3.1 slots.The RTX 3070 that is in this thing is no joke. Some people will come in here and claim "well, it might work like such and such card". The 3070 even at 85watts in this laptop performs better than my Windforce x3 2070 that was in my desktop. Not only was there a performance increase in my games but there was a big increase in my lightbaking in Unity and in Blender for those of you that know what that means. Plenty of power in the GPU to play a game in 1080p Ultra and also stream it on Twitch at the same time.The cpu is also damn good. This laptop replaced a desktop that I had built that had an i5 11400 , 32 gb of 3000 ddr 4, and a rtx 2070. The 11800h outperforms the 11400 desktop CPU in every task I threw at it. I like to mine crypto as a benchmark for testing my equipment(PassMark is also really good - userbenchmarks is a scam - read about it). The 11800h mined at a 30% better rate than the 11400 at a much lower wattage. The RTX 3070 85w that is in the laptop out mined a desktop 2070 at 180w 50mh to 42mh for eth.The onboard keyboard is responsive and the 144hz screen is just icing on the cake as far as I am concerned. Speakers are good. I use earbuds anyway and this laptop pumps out the volume so you can definitely hear your opponents in games just fine.Fan control that is on this thing is also great. Sitting here typing this which a few tabs open, discord open, three monitors, and about 10 usb devices plugged in: I am pulling 32c on both the gpu and cpu according to afterburner.I have been using this machine since Blackfriday 2021. If I had another $110, I would buy it again no question.

I know MSI haven't been in the gaming computer business that long, but they have a great reputation as a motherboard manufacturer, so based on that, I decided to try them out. I'm glad I did. I've been surprised at how very, very good this laptop is.Graphics - the RTX 3070 handles Cyberpunk (ray tracing off) at a consistent 75 fps, FFXIV on maximum settings runs at 140+ fps, GTA V on maximum settings runs at 80+ fps, Witcher 3 runs at 90+ fps, etc. all on max/ultra settings.Processor - I haven't run into anything that's slowed it down yet.RAM - 16GB has been fine. I haven't run into any need for more based on the games I play.Storage - the 512 GB turned out to be a little small for my needs, so I had to add a WD Black SSD and swap that to my main drive, though it's not MSI's fault that I didn't buy a big enough drive.Monitor - Has great blacks and contrast, but no touchscreen. I don't care about that, though.Build - the shell is made of a sort of brittle plastic that cracked with I was peeling the bottom off to add the new hard drive. Don't expect it to survive a drop.Battery - I honestly don't know. I wanted a laptop because I have a home base with a monitor and keyboard, but I also need to move from desk to desk where I always have a power supply. I rarely need to use it on the go, per se. I've read it can be low, though.So, based on my needs, I'm super happy with how this laptop performs. If you really wanted to spend an extra $2000+ to push those FPS into the 200+ range, I guess you could, but I don't really see the need. Very strongly recommended!