Solved! Gaming laptop + battery life :o

[Narfeel]

1) What is your budget? ~2500

2) What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14 - 17"

3) What screen resolution do you want? 1366x768+ (will probably have a 22" monitor connected so the bigger the better)

4) Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable, I've got desktops galore.

5) How much battery life do you need? As much as possible. Optimus would be greatly preferred, basically required.

6) Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? Yes I do. Games I'd like to play would be things along the line of.

WOW
SC2
BF2 - High
BF3......



7) What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Used as a work laptop, running multiple VMs and used as entertainment on long ass flights.

8) How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 500Gb+

9) If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
N/A

10) How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible. 3 years or so would be the target, I guess.

11) What kind of Optical drive do you need? Bluray nice but not necessary

12) Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. I don't have any brand preference.

13) What country do you live in? Australia

14) Please tell us any additional information if needed

Dont want something big and bulky, weight is not a real issue but I dont want to be able to do curls with this thing as well!

 

[Bacterius]

Wow let's get to work: with this massive budget (I assume you mean AUD dollars - if you mean USD then there's not much difference anyway according to current rates). I suggest the Sager NP8170, customization page at this link:
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8170s1-clevo-p170hm-out-stock-eta-march-p-2982.html?wconfigure=yes
These are the customizations that I recommend:
- do not change the CPU, the prices are just absurdly high
- go for the GTX485M, you want a good gaming laptop so that's what you should aim for (furthermore it's user upgradeable!)
- for the first hard drive, take an SSD for fast boot times and responsivity, I chose the 80GB model (it's for OS and often-used software, not for mass storage)
- for the second hard drive, I recommend the 750GB 7200RPM model
- Blu-ray reader (not burner) is included by default, you can remove it and revert to a standard DVD r/w and save $80 USD in the process, up to you
- as a final customization I elected a better sound card, having an actual dedicated sound card really does make a difference despite the looks, so I chose the Creative Blaster USB sound card

Protip: if you don't feel like you really need the GPU upgrade (look at benchmarks and reviews to confirm), you can revert to the default GTX470M (which is pretty good in itself) one and save a few hundred dollars, either for improved storage or CPU, or maybe other stuff, like upgrading to 12GB RAM if you are going to run a lot of memory-hungry programs at the same time)

The GPU has Optimus as required. As you mentioned you have desktop, I did not feel you needed to buy another version of Windows - if you do, add $90 USD.
Did I mention the laptop has a 1920x1080 LCD display? (please note I am not an advertising bot - I'm just enthusiastic lol)

Total price with all bells and whistles comes out at roughly $2500 USD (~ $2400 AUD), so you've got some leftover (shipping? additional customizations?)

That was my suggestion.

 

[duxducis]

I have got this one for my friend i have set it up and tested it runs perfect
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115989

Also got this for client of mine its more expensive due to 1080 screen played with it for week runs perfect as well
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215007