Totally agree with the above! Just catching up on this thread and wanted to add my two cents as someone who’s been tearing these things apart for years. Honestly, the $900 range is what I call the 'compromise zone'—manufacturers HAVE to cut something to hit that price. Unfortunately, it’s usually the screen color accuracy or the thermal pads that suffer first. I’ve had issues with several budget builds recently where the TGP (Total Graphics Power) was capped so low that the RTX 4060 performed like a last-gen card. It’s super frustrating tbh. So, my biggest tip: always check the wattage before buying. For your budget, the ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (2023) FA507NU-DS74 with RTX 4050 6GB and Ryzen 7 7735HS is probably your best bet for cooling. It actually uses a decent heat pipe layout compared to those 'thin and light' models that basically bake their own components after 30 mins of Cyberpunk. Also, keep an eye on the HP Victus 16-s0097nr 16.1" Gaming Laptop AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060. It’s often on sale right around $899. I was disappointed with the hinge wobble on the older 15-inch versions, but the 16-inch chassis is way sturdier. Just be warned, the screens at this price are often kinda dim... but it works well tho if you aren't in direct sunlight. Basically, prioritize a high-wattage GPU and a MUX switch if you wanna squeeze out every frame. Good luck!

Yo! Honestly, I feel u... trying to find a "high-end" budget beast for $900 is tough but definitely possible if you catch a good sale. I've been obsessed with testing these budget builds lately and here's my breakdown: - **Lenovo LOQ 15IRH8 15.6" Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-13420H NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 8GB RAM 512GB SSD**: This thing is amazing! It’s basically a baby Legion, so the cooling is actually way better than most cheap laptops. The build feels super solid and not like cheap plastic.
- **Acer Nitro V 15 ANV15-51-51H9 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i5-13420H NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 8GB DDR5 512GB SSD**: It’s super popular and easy to find, but tbh it gets kinda loud under load. It'll run Cyberpunk, but expect those fans to scream lol.
- **ASUS TUF Gaming A15 (2023) 15.6” 144Hz FHD NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS 16GB DDR5 512GB PCIe SSD**: This is my absolute BEST recommendation if you can find a deal near $900. The 4060 is a HUGE jump over the 4050 for heavy titles like Starfield because of the extra VRAM. Seriously, the TUF A15 is the winner for performance vs thermals right now. Plus the battery life is actually decent for a gaming rig!

Honestly, when youre looking at this price point, you really have to be careful about which brand's 'budget' line you pick because the engineering philosophies are so different. From a market perspective, some brands basically take their high-end chassis and gut the internals, while others build a cheap plastic shell from scratch. I’ve noticed a huge trend where brands like MSI or HP (on the Victus side) tend to use shared heat pipe designs on their entry-level stuff to save costs, which is a total nightmare for Starfield. But the real trap is the 'thin and light' marketing. If a laptop at $900 claims to be super portable and high-performance, run away lol. At this budget, you actually want the chunkier, uglier machines. More mass usually means better heatsinks and more room for air to move. Also, watch out for brands that use 45W or 60W versions of the 4060 just to keep the heat down—it totally kills the performance you’re paying for. Always dig into the teardown videos to see if the VRMs actually have thermal pads, because some of these budget brands skip them entirely to hit that sub-$900 MSRP. Basically, if it looks too sleek to be a gaming rig at this price, the thermals are probably gonna be trash tbh.

Did this last week, worked perfectly