Gaming Laptop to Last Me 4-5 Years for College?

[Prkr5885]

In August I'll be starting college for a major in Aerospace Engineering, so I'll need a somewhat beefy laptop so it can run all the required programs/simulations, etc. Anyone have any specific recommendations? I'll probably need a 15.6 inch display, and I just mainly want something that in 4 years will be able to play games on at least medium settings. I would prefer a 128 - 256 GB sized SSD, along with an HDD of course. I'd prefer to buy the laptop within a few weeks, but if you all think I should wait til July for new stuff or price drops to come out, let me know, and let me know what to look out for.
Also, my family gets a small $100 discount on dell laptops.

Is there a huge difference in performance between a 980M and 970M? With the ram, I don't have that much knowledge/experience in that field, so if you find a laptop I can upgrade, please tell me how much it'd cost for a decent upgrade. As in terms of graphics, I've heard in some cases you can, and in some cases you can't upgrade graphics cards in laptops. I know that sometime this year new cards are rumored to come out, if so, I don't have a problem upgrading. If you find me a laptop that I can easily upgrade in a year or two, but that will run current games on high/ultra settings, that would be perfect.

I found these, but I'm not sure which one would be the best bet in lasting long. If you can customize them to better last/perform, then by all means do so. I just really prefer not to spend over $2000.


Feel free to reconfigure these as you see fit for me.
1. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154106

2. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315187

3. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834297333&cm_re=dell_alienware-_-34-297-333-_-Product

4. (I like this one, but it's not a 980, plus it's a bit close to my limit of $2000)
http/www.amazon.com/Custom-4K-605-256-notebook-Upgraded-i7-5700HQ/dp/B00YZ3JTFK/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&srs=8064300011&ie=UTF8&qid=1464633000&sr=1-3&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin%3A2423841011%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2289792011%2Cp_computer_cpu_speed-bin%3A3+GHz+%26+Up

5. (I also like this one, but it's over my range. I can probably order one with a 128GB SSD, and it says the graphics card is MXM and upgradeable? If so, should I get this, and in a couple of years upgrade the card?) http/www.amazon.com/XOTIC-NP9758-S1-Skylake-i7-6700K-Computer/dp/B01CF769O6/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&srs=8064300011&ie=UTF8&qid=1464633000&sr=1-1&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin%3A2423841011%2Cp_n_feature_four_browse-bin%3A2289792011%2Cp_computer_cpu_speed-bin%3A3+GHz+%26+Up#Ask


Thanks!

 

[hang-the-9]

For games on high or ultra now you need a 980m in the system, especially if you want it to run games for 4 years. A 970m can probably run games on high settings, but will be on Medium in the demanding ones at playable FPS.

 

[Kenneth1987]

You could try to look at workstation laptop that fit your needs and under your budget. I just search on Amazon there have many choice like MSI, HP and Dell. http/www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=workstation+laptop&rh=n%3A541966%2Ck%3Aworkstation+laptop