Laptop for Software Engineering Student

[Apoctolistic]

I'll be starting College next year going into Software Engineering. I currently own a monster of a machine, but, because of its greatness it can't be moved very easily. So I now require a Laptop.

My budget is $1200 max (thank you scholarships). I'm looking for something that can satisfy my academic as well as my gaming needs, with a bit more focus on the academic part.

Preferences:

• 
  Intel Processor, i7 or equivalent, i heard good things about some skylake thing going on but haven't
  done my research on it so I don't know if they are good or not.
  
  Good Battery Life - its got to last though out the day for all my classes, but i do intead to get and extra battery/Larger battery
  
  Sexy Graphics - Preferable Nividia, would like it to run CS GO and Fallout like games a High settings but i can settle for a little less if i have to.
  
  RAM RAM RAM and an SSD - Loading screens must be killed at all cost. waiting is for consoles
  
  Its got to Last - Ill be using this a lot and would prefer it to last all 4 years, but I do intend on changing a few parts out when i see the need or have the extra funds

The ones that have caught my interest so far
ASUS ROG series
http/store.asus.com/us/item/201510AM170008064/A18486
http/store.asus.com/us/item/201510AM170008066/A18486

Lenovo Y50 series
http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/?menu-id=laptops#facet-1=2&facet-3=5,6&facet-7=1,6

All help/tips/advice/anything is appreciated
Thank You All

My Baby (Current PC): http/pcpartpicker.com/p/MsN3kL

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

If you really want performance for a good value, look at a Sager/Clevo laptop. That will get you much more performance per dollar than most other machines. They don't have the best looks, though, and battery life isn't particularly great (although battery life won't be good in any machine with a decent GPU). But it's still probably the best laptop that can game that I know of.

On the other hand, if you are interested in going for the other extreme, get a Chromebook. I'm typing this very message on an Acer 11" Chromebook, which I outfitted with a Ubuntu chroot using crouton (you should probably get used to Linux anyway for SE), so it can do all of the software development tasks I have ever needed. Aside from that, it is extremely portable, and I get about 10 hours of regular use before the battery is low. Best of all, it costs just over $150 if you look in the right places, leaving you with $1050 for a kickass machine to game on when you get home after school.

Just putting my 2 cents in as ideas. Feel free to reply if any of them interest you, and otherwise I can try to give you other suggestions.

 

[bigboy101]

If you want the most out of $1,200, you can check this one out. It has a 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM, an i7-5700HQ (Broadwell) and a 1080p screen.
http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RVUMY4W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00RVUMY4W&linkCode=as2&tag=toxislay-20&linkId=4QXUK66VVXRE64HV

The ASUS one's you're looking at are really good too but come with a HDD instead of an SSD.

 

[Apoctolistic]

On the other hand, if you are interested in going for the other extreme, get a Chromebook. I'm typing this very message on an Acer 11" Chromebook, which I outfitted with a Ubuntu chroot using crouton (you should probably get used to Linux anyway for SE), so it can do all of the software development tasks I have ever needed. Aside from that, it is extremely portable, and I get about 10 hours of regular use before the battery is low. Best of all, it costs just over $150 if you look in the right places, leaving you with $1050 for a kickass machine to game on when you get home after school.

Just putting my 2 cents in as ideas. Feel free to reply if any of them interest you, and otherwise I can try to give you other suggestions.

You have peeked my interest with this Chromebook thing and i would like to learn more about this if you have any guides / articles about it i could read.
For now though, I would still rather buy a good laptop with the money and would love any suggestions

*didn't mean to select you as solution and i don't know how to undo. no offence i really loved your response just not my solution .
New Thread: http/www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2851806/laptop-software-engineering-student.html

 

[Apoctolistic]

If you want the most out of $1,200, you can check this one out. It has a 500GB SSD, 16GB RAM, an i7-5700HQ (Broadwell) and a 1080p screen.
http/www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RVUMY4W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00RVUMY4W&linkCode=as2&tag=toxislay-20&linkId=4QXUK66VVXRE64HV

The ASUS one's you're looking at are really good too but come with a HDD instead of an SSD.

Thanks, I like the one you suggested and have added it to my consideration list

 

[Epsilon_0EVP]

No problem, I understand If you are interested in the Chromebook solution, look up the crouton project. It basically sets up a chroot, using the same kernel that Chrome OS uses, but with whatever desktop environment you want. This lets you run any x86 Linux application, compile code, access a full shell, etc. The github page for the crouton project is a good place to start: https/github.com/dnschneid/crouton

Of course, that solution does require knowledge of a bit of Linux, but it would be very beneficial for any software engineer to be familiar with a UNIX-like system, anyway. Feel free to ask any more questions about using a Chromebook if you are interested.