Looking for laptop for art student (digital art, some gaming) under 1000 USD

[nttrang]

Hi, hope someone can help me out. I am not very experienced with picking laptops and need to find a suitable one for my sister who is starting University in the fall. She will be focusing on digital art and game design. From the limited research that I've done, the programs and games that she will be running can be RAM and graphics demanding. So we're looking at a laptop with a good graphics card, good CPU, at least 8 GB of RAM, i5 processor or higher and something that won't overheat too quickly while running the programs mentioned below. Let me know if you need any more info or clarification. Thank you for your help!
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1. What is your budget?
Under USD 1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15"-16"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Standard 1280x800 and 1366x768
or mid-range 1440x900 and 1600x900

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
At least 3-4 hours, but the longer the better

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)?
Yes, games like Dragon Age Inquisition, The Witcher, Mass Effect - on medium or high settings. However, gaming will not be priority.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Aside from Internet browsing, I will be running programs such as: PaintTool SAI, Clip Studio Paint, Manga Studio, CS Photoshop, RPG Maker XP/VX Ace, and possibly other art programs

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
500 GB - 1 TB, open for an SSD upgrade

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
N/A

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 3 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM/Writer

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
N/A

13. What country do you live in?
Vietnam, but possible to make purchase in the UK, Poland

 

[OreoTheCookieMonster]

Primary recommendation - I do not know if you guys have vat or other stuff like that but if you do the price might come high so check out the secondary recommendation. Even though these recommendation are stated as primary It is not really necessary since nvidia will be incorporating hbm tech next year so these things might turn in crap but then again that is tech.

These both are the same products - Asus
http/store.asus.com/us/item/201503AM110000025/A18486
http/www.amazon.com/dp/B00T7XRH2A/ref=asc_df_B00T7XRH2A3848609?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=iceleadscom-20&linkCode=df0&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B00T7XRH2A&ascsubtag=s1440063806946xxpka52378

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152925&ignorebbr=1 - MSI

Secondary and the ones with your budget recommendation might come up with vat and other import taxes
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152877&ignorebbr=1 - MSI
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576&ignorebbr=1 - Asus - With SSD

I would recommend going for the i7 and the 960 if your budget allows it with your country's taxes if not the i5 with the 950 is decent. I am not really sure about the amd laptops since i am unaware of them but perhaps someone knowledgeable will post regarding them

 

[nttrang]

Primary recommendation - I do not know if you guys have vat or other stuff like that but if you do the price might come high so check out the secondary recommendation. Even though these recommendation are stated as primary It is not really necessary since nvidia will be incorporating hbm tech next year so these things might turn in crap but then again that is tech.

These both are the same products - Asus
http/store.asus.com/us/item/201503AM110000025/A18486
http/www.amazon.com/dp/B00T7XRH2A/ref=asc_df_B00T7XRH2A3848609?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=iceleadscom-20&linkCode=df0&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B00T7XRH2A&ascsubtag=s1440063806946xxpka52378

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152925&ignorebbr=1 - MSI

Secondary and the ones with your budget recommendation might come up with vat and other import taxes
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152877&ignorebbr=1 - MSI
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232576&ignorebbr=1 - Asus - With SSD

I would recommend going for the i7 and the 960 if your budget allows it with your country's taxes if not the i5 with the 950 is decent. I am not really sure about the amd laptops since i am unaware of them but perhaps someone knowledgeable will post regarding them

Thank you! I will look into your suggestions.

Some recommendations I got from another forum were for the Lenovo Y50 with i7-4720HQ/960M, Asus ROG GL551 with 16GB of RAM, 1TB HDD and 950M graphics, Acer V15 Nitro with either 950M or 960M, and MSI PE60. I checked prices on these at some vendors here and noticed that these models would have similar specs as recommended, but the graphics card would only be 840M or 860M, and their prices would already be over 1000 USD.

Sister also recently sent me a link to a Dell Inspiron 15 N3543A (696TP2) (Intel Core i7-5500U 2.4GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, VGA NVIDIA Geforce 840M, 15.6 inch) and it costs about 300-450 USD less than the 4 models I just mentioned. I was told that it can be a decent option given the price difference between the models. Using the cost difference, we can eventually get my sister a nice separate monitor so the drop in graphics card quality wouldn't be much of an issue. So we are considering this Dell, but are still researching other options.