Need Help Buying Laptop

[Pat61]

So I'm about to head to college and am looking for a laptop to buy. Main things I will run on it are Armagetron, Finale 2014, Pyware 3D, Tesseract (the new version of Sauerbraten Cube 2), word, chrome, movies (DVD/BR/NetFlix), and maybe some other low to mid graphic intensive games (or high level on low settings). Just to add a base line....

Finale System Requirements are the following:

XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8 (64-bit compatible)
Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon, Intel i3 or AMD Athlon II X2 and above recommended
2 GB of RAM, 4 GB or above recommended
800X600 minimum monitor resolution, 1366×768 and above recommended
Internet connection for download install or DVD-ROM drive for DVD install
600MB hard drive space required for software and user manual with an additional 2GB hard drive space is required for Garritan Instruments for Finale
---

Pyware System Requirements are the following:

Minimum Hardware Requirements:
1.6 Ghz Dual Core Processor or Greater
2GB of RAM or greater
ATI Radeon HD 4350, NVIDIA GeForce 9400, Intel HD 3000 graphics performance or better
supporting OpenGL 2.0 or better (latest driver recommended)
Windows XP, 2000, Vista, 7, 8
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks

Recommended Hardware Requirements:
2.4 Ghz Dual Core Processor or greater
4GB of RAM or greater
ATI Radeon HD 5770, NVIDIA GeForce GT 550 graphics performance or better
supporting OpenGL 2.0 or better (latest driver recommended)
Windows Vista, 7 (64-bit), 8 (64-bit)
Mac OS X10.6 Snow Leopard, 10.7 Lion, 10.8 Mountain Lion, 10.9 Mavericks
----

I am wondering what everyone suggests. I have been looking at an Intel i5, 1080p Full HD screen (for movies and multi-document at a time), 500gb HDD, 6GB RAM, Blu-Ray Drive. Feel free to adjust any specs that you think are overkill for what I am doing. I am also not against AMD, Intel and Nvidia just seem more prevalent in laptops. Also, I would like a keyboard with tactile feedback, but I plan on buying a keyboard and mouse for dorm use. My budget is $800USD, but I can go a little higher. I am looking at a 15-15.9in screen, but I will consider as low as a 13in as long as you compensate $100 for me to have a monitor in my dorm. Lighter is always better, but my campus is rather small (15min max to walk across), so it isn't that big of a deal.

Thanks again!


EDIT: A completely separate idea my brother gave me was to build a desktop for around $600, buy a chromebook for $200, and then use Chrome Remote Desktop or SHH to access my desktop whenever I needed something more than word or the internet. My other brother quickly pointed out that it would have 3 points of failure though.

[Ratchet]

There are tons of variables that you haven't quite specified.

I would suggest taking a look for yourself!

Here is a search I somewhat optimized for your uses:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... ted%20Card

I recommend that website, highly. It's what I've purchased almost everything I've needed from lately. I have spent over $2000 with them in the last year, mostly between purchasing my desktop and parts for it, and my laptop. The laptop I have is this one, and it is certainly not an under-performing laptop. So, specs close to or slightly above that will more than suffice for all of your needs. Currently I am using the laptop for primarily CAD designing and other high-memory design programs that my university requires for Engineering. With 6GB RAM, a mobile i5 chip, and a mobile NVIDIA card, my laptop works great. I play games, too, of course! If I recall correctly League of Legends runs at something around 100 FPS with settings on "High", or something like that. Armagetron runs at about 700 on average, going down to 500 under a really heavy load and up to 1000ish when not drawing much.

A big help in these things are "benchmark" websites.
When buying my computers I used benchmarks as my bible.

Video Card Benchmarks
Processor Benchmarks

[Clutch]

I would also recommend Newegg very highly. Almost everyone I know that decided a custom pc/laptop used that site. Definitely trustworthy

[Pat61]

I have looked on Newegg, Tigerdirect, Amazon, CNet, and various blogs extensively... the problem is there is inconsistencies in reviews on different brands that causes problems.

Thanks for your comments.

[takburger]

consider a good battery.

[delinquent]

http://www.malibal.com

Get some more money.

[It-Is-Me]

Have you looked into anything from the Acer Aspire models? You can get some decent ones for your budget, or at least you used to be able to...