Suggestions for buying a budget (Around $500) Laptop for Virtulization and Gaming?

[nshin313]

Hey all, I'm looking for a 15 inch (or smaller) laptop (around $500) that I can use for learning pen-testing (by virtualizing multiple OSes simultaneously), which will require quite a bit of RAM and Storage, and some casual gaming/video editing (...so i'll need dedicated graphics).

Currently, I have an Early 2011 13" Macbook Pro (specs here), with the only modification being a 120GB SSD replacing the standard 320GB HDD. I'm currently virtualizing my OSes with virtualbox, however, storage space and RAM are just barely sufficient, also the Mac's not a great gaming machine. So my question is: Should I sell my macbook pro and get the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-574G-52QU (or some other machine), which has decent specs for my needs (at least I think), or should I just keep my Macbook and just upgrade the RAM and hard drive? If so, how much do you think my Macbook will sell for? The condition is decent, I replaced it with a new battery a few weeks ago.

Thanks in advance.

 

[cdabc123]

is their any way you could use a desktop?

 

[nshin313]

is their any way you could use a desktop?

Of course, but I'd prefer a laptop.

 

[cdabc123]

is their any way you could use a desktop?

Of course, but I'd prefer a laptop.

what will you be doing in the vms? how many will you run simultaneously? what performance do you want for games? how much video editing?