Gaming Laptop under $1000

MarTra

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Dec 15, 2014
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I'm looking for a gaming laptop preferably well under $1000. While I realize that price is more on the low end for gaming laptops, I've never spent more than $600 on a laptop, so for me, that's a lot.

The specs that's I'm interested in are:

15.6-17.3 Screen size
Screen Resolution: 1920x1080
Processor: 2.5- 3.2 GHz
Core i5 - Core i7
RAM: 6GB - 8 GB
Hard Drive: above 700 GB
Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA Geforce something-or-the-other (basically as long as it has some kind of dedicated graphics, I don't really care).

A backlit keyboard is a MUST (I've always wanted a laptop with one )

I saw the MSI Apache Pro-012 on Amazon, and it pretty much meets all of my requirements, but it's $200 over my already stretched budget.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE70-Apache-Pro-012-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ5I2

Do you guys know of any gaming laptops that will suit my needs AND my budget?

Thanks for any help in advance.

***UPDATE***

I also found this MSI Apache Pro-061 on Amazon for $988 and the only real difference to the other MSI that I can see, is that this has 8GB of RAM VS the 12GB the other has, and it has a core i5 instead of an i7. Does that make a really big difference? Or should I scrape up a few more bucks to get the other MSI Apache Pro, or something else entirely?
Classes start in a couple of days, and I really need something soon..

Here's the link http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00IMTQ4BK/ref=ox_sc_act_image_6?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER#featureBulletsAndDetailBullets_secondary_view_div_1421860915283