MSI Cyborg A13VE-218US 15.6″ Gaming Laptops

Pros: The I7 iteration is still very viable for what the laptop is designed for. 16GB 5200 RDRAM is a good setup for gaming as well as the 4050 RTX GPU chip. Good and easy connectivity and user face for SteelSeries software. Overall a very good laptop, adn the second one I have had from MSI and I will probably but a third one in the next couple of years. Cons: Now, the bad, the very very bad. Norton 360 for Gamers comes preinstalled on this laptop and it is a horrendous product, causing lag and constantly trying to run in the background. the only way to get rid of it is to use Norton’s Remove and Reinstall App from their website, which still does not remove everything. Instead it leaves a popup that tries to redownload Norton to your laptop again, when you have already uninstalled it. I had to go into user/name/app data/downloads to find the Norton folder to delete it. When Googling tech sites on how to get rid of it I saw that other people had found the same folder in other places on their C:/ drives, so this is a real bad piece of software. Basically this laptop comes with a virus already loaded onto it which is the Norton software. It took a lot to remove a piece of software that nobody really wants in the first place. And that it will not uninstall at all with the standard uninstall options , to me, makes it a literal virus. Oh, and you also have to go into the registry keys as well to find any Norton items and manually delete them too. Do better MSI, do better. Overall Review: Overall 4/5 due to the pre loaded ‘anti virus’ software that really hinders the laptop’s promised performance.

Pros: It runs really well, no issues within the past week Overall Review: Highly recommend it

Overall Review: Would not recommend buying this as its only good when u first get it but overtime it just goes bad as an example my previous laptop has only ever blue screened three times over its 4 year life span. this one on the other hand has blue screened and had so many issues loading stuff in just 5 months that id rather just get a new pc as soon as possible and avoid any MSI related products.

Pros: First thing, I LOVE the design. Having clear-ish bottom cover with lots of open holes to breath is such a great design choice. Very gamer-esque.
The first thing I did before even downloading stuff like Fortnite and Steam was upgrade the RAM. 16GB is good, especially for the price, but for my use case I upgraded it to the max of 64GB. Taking it apart is relatively easy and replacing the RAM wasn’t difficult. While I was in there I replaced the thermal paste for both the GPU and CPU and the paste was a tad dry. Not dry enough to cause temp spikes or heavy throttling or even dedicate a day to do it but while I was upgrading the RAM i figured why not.
I also suggest downloading a clean Windows install from Microsoft and re-imaging the laptop before downloading anything and the reason I say that is because there IS some bloatware that runs on start-up and considering it’s a laptop every service adds to how quickly a battery can drain when you’re on the go. Just dont forget to set your GPU as a primary graphics after a re-image, because by default mine was set to the Intel Graphics, which is also not bad and pretty good but the 4050 is the reason you bought this thing. Overall Review: First impressions: I LOVE the design. The clear-ish bottom cover with lots of ventilation is a great choice very gamer-esque and practical at the same time.
Upgrades: The first thing I did (before even downloading Fortnite or Steam) was upgrade the RAM and doing a clean Windows install from Microsoft. 16 GB is good, especially for the price, but I maxed mine out to 64 GB. Taking the laptop apart was surprisingly easy, and swapping RAM wasnt difficult. While I was inside, I repasted the CPU and GPU since the factory paste felt a bit stiff. Temps werent terrible, but after repasting I saw about a 4 °C drop at peak CPU workload.
Software setup: I highly recommend doing a clean Windows install right away. The laptop does come with some bloatware, and every background service can affect battery life. Just remember to set your Nvidia GPU as the primary after reinstalling mine defaulted to Intel graphics.
Cooling: My only real complaint is that this machine has just one fan. I havent seen any major throttling yet, but with both CPU and GPU sharing one cooler, every small upgrade helps. Thats why I swapped in premium paste and pads factory parts are usually just good enough.
Overall: Its thin, powerful, and surprisingly easy to upgrade. The single-fan setup limits how far you can push it, but if youre looking for a budget gaming laptop, this is an awesome value.