nateman_doo
So I have around 40 some-odd days until I Mob.  Going to get a gaming laptop to bring with.  I would say "spare no expense" gaming laptop... but I am married with kids, so I would like to keep the budget around 1500-1700 give or take.  Any recommendations?  

Stick to 15" or less or they get a bit too heavy to cart around with all your other gear, also the high end machines (like 17" with 2080 GPU etc.) tend to have really short battery life - like 1 hour of gaming if you're lucky in some cases. The one in my signature I purchased specifically for away from home as I like to travel light and take no more than carry-on baggage (I never check-in bags). It's a 14" 1440p IPS screen which is certainly nice enough for gaming, although I wouldn't want to go any smaller screen size at 1440p. The i7-7700HQ with NVMe drive makes for a snappy start up and response + app loading time, and the GTX-1060 GPU manages BF1 without issue, although it would struggle to handle ultra settings (meaning it mostly wouldn't handle it), but high settings or less demanding games wouldn't have a problem. It has mini DP and HDMI ports if you have access to a bigger monitor in your travels, which I've found useful. The laptop weighs in at only 4.1lb (including the battery, which some laptop manufacturers will omit to make their specs look better), and the battery is a huge 95Wh, which can run 15 hours on idle, just under 9 hours using the NBC WiFi Websurfing Battery Test 1.3, and more than 2 hours on full load on everything, which is very impressive for any laptop. I paid around $2,100k for it, but that was back in January 2017, and have since upgraded the memory and the NVMe SSD, but something like this should be within your stated budget brand new now...
 
Actually, XoticPC (I've purchased my last 3 laptops through them - great service) have the latest model "Gigabyte Aero 15 Classic" 15.6" 1440p 144Hz with i7-9750H and RTX 2060 discounted to $1,649 right now (normally $2k), and I think they might offer military discounts too. This might be perfect for you, if you're looking for the same sort of feature set as me (nice balance between performance and practicality) - and it has the monster 95Wh battery too!
https://xoticpc.com/collections/advanced-series-gaming-laptops/products/gigabyte-aero-15-classic-wa-f74adp  
 
They also have a RTX 2070 model for $2,100:
https://xoticpc.com/collections/extreme-series-gaming-laptops/products/gigabyte-aero-15-xb-7us1130sh 
 
:)
 

 
Nice. All the models I'm mentioning have per-key backlit RGB keyboards btw, that's pretty much standard now.
 
There's a Gigabyte Aero 17 - 17.3" 144Hz 1080p IPS with an i7-10750H (2.6GHz~5.0GHz) and RTX 2070 Max-Q for $1,999. Default comes with 512GB NVMe SSD and 16GB ram @ 2666MHz. There is a slot for additional drive too - 2x M.2 SSD slots (Type 2280, supports 1x NVMe PCIe & SATA/ 1x NVMe PCIe). Seems pretty nice.
https://xoticpc.com/colle...e-aero-17-wb-7us1130sh
 
There's an MSI model for the same price that looks to have the much the same components, but 32GB of ram and a 240Hz screen, however it says "IPS-level" monitor, not just "IPS" ... so not sure what that's supposed to mean, lol. The Gigabyte one is IPS, calibrated and certified, so it appears the Gigabyte has a better screen than this MSI one.
https://xoticpc.com/collections/extreme-series-gaming-laptops/products/msi-gs75-stealth-10sf-036
 
If you're like me and my wife, we both really do not like laptop trackpads, so if you want a recommendation for a nice wireless mouse, we both use the following Microsoft wireless 3500, and it's only $20:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PBZNF8
It's compact and doesn't have all the bells and whistles of a full gaming mouse, but it's way better than using the trackpad imo, and reliable.
 
Hmmm.. you've got me thinking about upgrading my laptop now, even though the one I have is perfectly fine. lol.
 
 
 

 
Yup, but any of the 2080 models are over the $2k mark. The best value is this Gigabyte Aero 17 with the 2080 Super Max-Q at $2,600
https://xoticpc.com/collections/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks/products/gigabyte-aero-17-yb-7us1430sh
 

Saw this and thought about this thread... if you are still looking:
https://www.newegg.com/matte-black-with-gold-diamond-cut-msi-gs-series-gs75-stealth-10sgs-027-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834155385?&quicklink=true

RainStryke
Saw this and thought about this thread... if you are still looking:
https://www.newegg.com/matte-black-with-gold-diamond-cut-msi-gs-series-gs75-stealth-10sgs-027-gaming-entertainment/p/N82E16834155385?&quicklink=true

1K over budget my friend.. but thank you for looking out!  

I just noticed something with the moon picture above (really nice shot btw). The moon seems to be peppered with meteor hits in very clustered areas, while other areas seem almost completely missed. I wonder why?

Looks like Dell is running a deal on their G7 with the RTX 2070 Max-Q for $1612.10.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/gaming-laptops/dell-g7-17-gaming-laptop/spd/g-series-17-7790-laptop/gn7790dmuks#features_section

nateman_doo
I pulled the trigger and got the 17" Gigabyte Aero.  Thank you Nereus for the recommendation!  The screen got such good reviews, and the price point too.  I wasnt happy that it didnt come with a CD drive, but honestly its such a rare thing to use, and I am bringing a laptop with a CD drive anyway.  

Congrats, nice machine! Very few have CD drives now, but if you want another recommendation, I use the following Dell USB drive with my laptop: 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VWVZ0V0/ 
Rarely need it except when I was first setting up. I've had cheaper ones but they tend to not last very long, this Dell one has been good for a few years now.
Also a small wireless mouse is strongly recommended, unless you're really comfortable with laptop track pads:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PBZNF8
Enjoy your new machine!