I need to buy a new laptop. Is MSI a good brand?

I would say no. I own an MSI GT70 2oc-065US and it is probably the worst decision I made.

It freezes randomly, has a whole ton of performance issues and worst of all I had to disable things that came pre-installed JUST TO USE IT.

Also, the ammount of bloatware that comes on these systems is HORRIBLE.

Just my opinion though.