I Need Help Finding a Laptop

[Spike53]

Hey I'm looking for a laptop for my last year of High School and to be used through my undergrad in university. I want to be sure it will last me ~4 years and be able to run AutoCAD nicely.

1_What is your budget? --> $0-$1700

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 13"-17"

3_What screen resolution do you want? Decent graphics hopefully over 1366X768

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? A combination I guess. I'll use it for typing documents mostly, casual gaming, AutoCAD, presentations....

5_How much battery life do you need? 3+ hours

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)? Medium preferably. Low-medium is acceptable.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Watch movies, browse internet, casual gaming, type documents and AutoCAD.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 320GB+

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. I'm open to anything as long as they're reputable and ship to Canada.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? ~4 years

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Blu-Ray hopefully, not necessary. DVD writer a must.

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. Don't want Apple laptops. I'm hesitant to but HP, Acer and Lenovo as I've heard many bad stories about them in my research. I want a reputable company with good reliability.

13_What country do you live in? Canada


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed. I'd prefer to have DX11 capable graphics (HD 5XXX) but will be comfortable with Nvidia or other good preforming graphics card with DX10.1. I'd prefer to have a i7 cpu as I see the quad being valuable for future value and functionality and best for rendering AutoCAD.
Here are come candidates I found:
Asus K52Jr-X4
Asus N61Jq-X1
Acer Aspire AS8942G-5679
Gateway NV7905H
There's also a custom Sony one I found. It's the VPC-F1190 with an Intel i7-720qm, 4GB ddr3-1333, 500GB SATA 7200rpm HDD, BluRay read/write, 16.4" display (1600X900), GT310m graphics card, backlit keyboard and a large capacity battery (~4.5 hours). All for $1560 including shipping.
I'm leaning towards the Sony but the only thing that's really putting me off is the Gt310M. I feel like I can do better with the same components. However, if it can run AutoCAD no problem, I'd be okay with it. Please, if you have any other opinions or suggestions it would be really appreciated to share them.
Thanks for all your time!
Spike

 

[buwish]

Here's a good one for your needs:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114804

 

[Spike53]

Thank you for the post! That laptop does look great! However, it's from the US NewEgg site and they don't ship up north. I check NewEgg Canada and other national/local vendor sites and didn't find this laptop.
If there are any other laptops that can be shipped within or to Canada which meet my requirements I would love to hear them!

 

[necropolis]

Try the Asus G73H- A2 it falls in your price range and will do almost anything but the battery life is below average so you will need a 9-cell battery to meet your needs there.

 

[Spike53]

Great idea, however, it's not available in Canada.
I did find one though and I'm going to order it within a few days. It's a Dell XPS 16:
Core i7-720qm
1920X1080 display
6gb RAM
500GB 7200RPM HDD
ATi HD 5730 graphics
Blu-Ray read capable w/ DVD combo
9-cell Li Battery with a reported 4.5 hrs life, ~4 actual
$1700 incl. taxes/shipping.

It's a pretty good deal I think. Here it is.
I did hear about possible heat issues but I won't be using the PC strenuously except for the 30 minutes to an hour a day I'll be playing games. Any comments??