I've been itching for a real gaming computer since discovering some games I want to play won't work with an integrated graphics system. Sooo ... anything in the $800 and up range is out of MY range, and I just didn't find anything on Ebay that I felt "safe" getting as they were mostly used systems. I just didn't want to throw money at some one else's failing system, if ya know what I mean.

Doing some hunting and a lot of reading to get up to speed on what's new in computer CPU's and GPU's took a couple of weeks. I'm woefully behind on pieces parts info as I quit building my own computers over 5 years ago. I'd love to have something with thunderbolt, 144hz, 1TB SSD, 16 gig ram (or more) and the latest and greatest in Nvidia graphics. Intel or Ryzen ... either would be fine.

But with my budget I had to settle for less of course. Walmart had (has?) an early bird black friday deal on an MSI GF63 Thin Gaming Laptop for $499 and free shipping with a Walmart+ membership. It comes with a free Windows 11 upgrade.

Amazon wants $900 for it and I'm not sure why Walmart says it's down from $699 as the computer was $829 the day before the black friday pricing went into effect. Either way, I'm saving a bundle!

I figure I'll add another 8 gig of ram which is available from Crucial for around $28. I've also had a new 500 Gig SSD sitting here for another system I was attempting to upgrade and the new MSI comes with a bracket to add another SSD so all should be well with it and more ram.

So what new toys will Santa be delivering to your house??