Is the SSD that crucial? My current one is itty bitty and I don't think it affects things too much, though perhaps loading times for a game or two could be better. It has my Windows install files and the programs that refuse to let me re-direct them to my regular hard drive.

My brother is accusing me of "doing it wrong" because my comp is still in the box. Doesn't say much for my life right now that I'm too distracted to open up a new computer. Need to decide how many of my files on this one I'm going to take the time to re-organize and how many I'll do later.

The SSD isn't critical for well-written games. You'll feel the loading times, especially when you first boot up your system, but once you're actually in the world you're probably not going to notice the difference, especially if you have enough RAM.

I know I had Skyrim on my SSD, until the drive started to get cramped, so I moved it over to my regular hard drive and didn't notice any performance issues.

Skyrim is an old game by now. You wouldn't notice problems with it, because it was designed to run on 2011-era computers. :P

EDIT: More to the point, they were expecting players to be loading data from an optical drive on PS3 and Xbox 360, and those are even slower than HDDs. If the game can handle THAT... not having an SSD isn't going to faze it. :P

Right. Silly me. ;). It pretty much ate my old computer battery so I tend to think of it as probably being meaner than it is.

So, as far as battery life goes, are there concerns about leaving laptops and such plugged in all the time? I made a point of not doing it with my Stealth here, and the battery appears to only just going, but I'm not sure if that actually had anything to do with it (standard life span I heard is 1.5 - 2 years). I'm told that running the battery down now and then and charge patterns aren't needed anymore because it's been build into some batteries

It's better to keep it plugged in all the time than to drain the battery really deep. Full recharge cycles are the second-worst thing you can do to a lithium-chemistry battery. (The worst thing you can do to it is overheat.)

When your laptop is plugged in, it'll disconnect the battery from the charging circuit until it drops down a few percent, then it'll top it back off. (Well-designed chargers nowadays report 100% charge even when the battery is at 90% or so just to keep you from thinking that there's something wrong.) This tiny little charge cycle hurts a little bit, but not as much as a big charge cycle, and since the laptop isn't USING battery when it's plugged in it takes it a fair amount of time to drop down that far.

The IDEAL charging pattern involves keeping your battery between 40% and 80% because the extremes are where problems come in. However, if you're doing stuff that drains battery (like playing games) then trying to keep it in that range is just going to cause you to have more total recharge cycles, which is worse than just leaving it plugged in.

If your laptop's battery is removable, the best thing you can do for it is to take the battery out and plug in your laptop when you're going to play high-requirements games, so that the battery isn't exposed to the heat or to extra charge cycles.

Now, separate from extending the battery's longevity: You might occasionally do a deep drain just to calibrate the laptop's battery sensor, but only if you know it needs it (e.g. if it says 0% for half an hour without ever dying, or if it dies while it still says 20%) because doing so reduces your battery's lifetime a little bit.

Ah. Yeah, I asked on the MSI forums about my recent battery issues and the battery on my comp is inaccessible to the user for warranty reasons I suppose. It was the first time I heard that calibration was a thing, so I used the tool once. Apparently the computer is designed to have a staggering charge pattern and warns me at 20% battery life so I don't think I've ever run it total dead.

My issue is that the light is now blinking amber on a full charge, but it's not always doing that. The other day, while playing a mild game, the comp flat out shut down after about 15 minutes, with no low battery warning. I've accidentally played Guild Wars without having been plugged in (I have my comp plugged into a power bar and just turn the bar off each night rather than constantly pulling plugs) and it runs for longer than that before it would surprised shut down. (I think I've done that twice).

My old Compaq Presario battery I just flat out cooked.

I've decided to run two comps now, setting up games on my new one and doing my class work and net crud on this one until the other is set up. Give myself some time to make sure I've got what I want before this goes to it's new home. I thought if I should do a factory reset or wipe this thing, but it's only going to my sister and I wasn't sure what the reset would do regarding the updated Windows 10. It's been working well for me with the automatics updates my brother (not sure which) set up. It might be best not to mess with it.

So for other people reading this, first impressions of my new Rog Strix (Hero Edition) are good for what little I've done so far. Set up was super easy, as it came with voice recognition and Cortana literally talked me through it. Didn't have to set up windows as it was ready to go. Just had to put in basic info like network password, region, and confirm information and privacy options. After that I turned off all the voice recognition and targeted advertising options and such because I'm paranoid that way. It did ask me to confirm a McAfee antivirus account which I didn't do. (I was told that the anti-virus Windows 10 comes with was good enough so I haven't had any other on my current computer, and I used Kaspersky on my last one.)

It's heavier than my Stealth, of course, but the smaller size does seem to make a difference with how easy it is to carry. Keyboard is unsurprisingly flashy, and I noticed that when screen saver is on it's a stable red, but begins a little light show when it falls into sleep mode. The keys are quieter than my Stealth and the touch-pad is creepy smooth and very responsive. Didn't come with much: power source and cord, a flimsy protect-the-shiny black slip cover (I've got a carry-case already so no need for a new one), and two itty bitty booklets on warranty and warnings. That is all.

Can't say a whole lot for screen or sound as I haven't exactly used it much or taxed it too badly, but it's quiet enough so far, and the screen it quite bright (I often turn settings down from default when I get a new computer) and the sound from the speakers was very good when I was setting up. I could hear Cortana quite clearly from several feet away as I was doing things at the time, and didn't have to fight to get the answers across.

I miss-typed a few things to start as the keyboard layout has larger right-hand shift and ctrl buttons as the arrow keys are offset from the rest. I like this, but it will take a little to get used to.

McAfee is trash nowadays anyway. Windows Defender is good enough.

I remember hearing that but wasn't sure if that was still the case.

I haven't heard anything to the contrary, and you know they'd be hyping the heck out of it if they did something revolutionary instead of sticking to the same thing they've been doing.