Gaming laptop for photo editing, 3d rendering, and most student needs.

[IAmGroot]

I have been looking for months now trying to find me the perfect laptop. I am a student and would like something that will last me my remaining years in college without me having to spend a bunch of money on repairs. Ive been stuck between macbook pro and various other brand laptops, lenovo, asus, alienware.. It comes down to this..
Money: $850. - $2500 (less is better but im willing to spend what i need to)
OS: i love Mac and Windows 7 (not used to 8 at all).
Size: 13-15in (anything less that like 10lbs, i know screen size plays a big part in program interface layout, being able to have multiple windows open, or 2programs side be side etc.)
8-16 GB ram (isnt there ram for the graphics card too??)
Around 500gb harddrive(is SSD better than HDD? Why so? Also ive been told if buying new, buy the cheapest one and upgrade parts individually. I was told most all laptops these days are unupgradable internally!?)

As you can see i dont know a whole lot about computers. Yet i seem to be overthinking every detail. I also keep thinking about spending money on future repairs, which brand will last longer and get less viruses etc. OS restricted programs, what i cant run if i were to buy a mac or pc. And many other factors.
I will be using my computer for photo editing (lightroom, photoshop) 3D rendering/animation (modo, sculptris, maya, unity, mudbox, maybe even 3ds max) enternet (pandora, facebook, netflix, no porn or downloading cause i know that stuff is dangerous!?!)
Anyways, ask me a million more questions if necessary, i would like to learn as much as ossible and need to buy myself something epic before this quarter starts. Thanks

 

[jshoop]

a desktop will provide much better performance for the price, but im guessing as a student you'll need to take it around everywhere. i suggest getting the most powerful macbook you can, and then dual boot windows 7 with it using bootcamp

EDIT: try to find somewith with an i7 processor and atleast 8gb ram (16gb preferrable).

in a laptop you can upgrade ram and the hdd, anything else is usually not reachable. thats another reason why a desktop would be better

 

[03321]

If you have any interest in gaming, a Macbook is not advisable since you will be pretty much forced to settle for integrated graphics unless you plan on spending $2500 for the top-end version, which still only comes with a low-mid range graphics card.

If you're comfortable spending $1000 or more on a laptop, a Core i7 processor and SSD are definitely advisable. An SSD is much faster than an HDD, and assuming all other things remain equal you will notice the difference. This may mean having 2 hard drives (1 SSD, 1 HDD) if you require a lot of storage space.

You will have some trouble finding a new laptop with Windows 7 rather than Windows 8.1, but it isn't impossible. Check out custom sites like ibuypower that let you change the OS: http/www.ibuypower.com/Site/15-Inch-Gaming-Laptop. Again, if you are interested in gaming I would suggest a system with at least a GeForce GTX 860M, which will allow you to run high settings on most new games and also aid your other graphics-based programs. As for your question about the video card using RAM, dedicated graphics cards have their own VRAM that they draw from.

10 lbs. is quite heavy for a laptop. Even high-end 17" laptops stay under that usually. 13"-15" laptops will generally weigh under 6 lbs. Personally, I find 13" screens awfully small, and even 15" screens can feel a bit more compact than I like at times. But if you're looking for mobility along with functionality, a 15-15.6" screen is probably a good choice.

Finally, as jshoop said, a desktop will get you more for your money, especially when graphics cards start coming into the equation. However, I assume you need a laptop since that is what you are asking about, and in that case you should be able to find a system ~$1100-1200 that meets your requirements. Also, you didn't talk much about gaming in your post so if my assumption of your interest there is incorrect, you can always downgrade the video card to an 840M or even integrated graphics (bringing the Macbook back as a possibility), though I am fairly certain this will still have a noticeable negative impact on your 3d rendering/animation.