i7 for College

[UniversityOfPi]

I'm looking at around $1000 maybe even $1500 given what I've seen

I want something with a 14" or 15" screen

I'd greatly prefer 1080p but would accept 900p

It can be heavy as long as the battery lasts a good while. Frankly four or five hours is probably enough.

I'm going to be doing some intensive stuff and need 8 GB of RAM (ideally upgrade-able from there) and a quad core i7. I'd prefer Haswell but given the availability, IB will work too. In terms of gaming though, I play mostly more graphically relaxed titles like Civ V and some older stuff.

I'd like something 500GB+ but the main concern is I'd like something with an mSATA slot so I can upgrade to SSD speeds down the road but maintain storage space (maybe even bump up to a full TB @ 7200 too)

I'm mainly thinking bestbuy but also amazon and newegg or even direct from dell, lenovo, hp, et al, maybe even something like xoticpc

It needs to last 4 years; that's why I insist on a quad core i7 and at least 8 gigs of ram.

I would really, really prefer something with a built in DVD burner, but if it's a choice between something like the razr blade and a desktop replacement; I could go without it

I don't like toshiba mostly because of bad experiences. The only other brand I'm a little weary of is Sager/Clevo. I do like the longevity of certain business lines like thinkpads.

I really want a backlit keyboard.

I'm going to be buying this in NY state (US) sometime before mid-August.

I've been looking but mostly towards gaming rigs mainly for their power but also because they're about the only 4th gen i7 carrying laptops. Specifically I've been considering the new (2013 model) Alienware m14x, MSI GE60 and MSI GT60 lines
I know there's also the Ideapad y510p and some Asus ROG but given the price similarities I prefer the style if the MSI/Alienware rigs

I'm wondering if there's something better suited to my needs other than these gaming rigs.
When I looked a few months ago I did think maybe something like Dell's XPS line or any other Winbook Pro (Windows based Macbook Pro competitor)

The only thing that really concerns me about those MSI ones is battery life
The upgrade-ability of the GT60 is insane (2 HDD + 1 ODD and up to 32GB of RAM) which might be nice after graduation to have a great computer for my desk

 

[King Hackintosh]

I just read a review on the Lenovo Ideapad Y500 and they said it was excellent (configured with dual GPUs and 16gb RAM for $1250). Although it doesn't have a msata ssd, it does have an 16gb ssd cache which when pared with 16gb of ram should do just fine! And if you don't need 16gb ram or dual GPUs, you can have a nice rig for under $1000! Hope this helps...

 

[King Hackintosh]

I just read a review on the Lenovo Ideapad Y500 and they said it was excellent (configured with dual GPUs and 16gb RAM for $1250). Although it doesn't have a msata ssd, it does have an 16gb ssd cache which when pared with 16gb of ram should do just fine! And if you don't need 16gb ram or dual GPUs, you can have a nice rig for under $1000! Hope this helps...