I've been looking around at laptops, thought I'd ask here for advice. For some reason it seems way harder to find information on mobile parts than desktop equivalents.
I've been wanting to build a gaming desktop for a long while now and will have the funds soon, but unfortunately I don't think it's going to work right now. I'm currently renting a small room while I finish my bachelor's, and I'm likely going to be in a similar situation for the next few years. I know building a desktop would give me way better bang for the buck and I'd be able to upgrade, but something portable is going to fit my lifestyle much better right now.
So I'm looking for a laptop with the following:
1) Needs to be decently powerful, as it'll basically be a portable desktop. This shouldn't be a problem though.
2) Needs to be a reliable brand. I've had my current laptop for six years, and while this new one probably won't be sticking around quite as long, I'm going to be using it for the next three minimum.
3) I'd like it to be somewhat gaming capable. I realize I'm not going to be maxing out games, but I would like to be able to at least play new games like Battlefield and Witcher 2 and future games that look that nice, even if at medium or low settings. I've been having a lot of trouble finding benchmarks for mobile cards, but basically I'd say as long as I can have games looking about as good as a typical 360 game but at 1080p at a steady 30fps I'll be happy.
4) This is kind of specific, and possibly stupid, but I'd really appreciate it if I could find a laptop that will let me use video out with the case closed. I have a friend who uses a small laptop for school and connects it to a monitor at home, and he has to have the laptop on his desk with the screen open when he's using the monitor, even though it's just blank black screen. I'd really like to be able to keep the laptop closed and completely out of the way if possible.
5) I realize any laptop that fits the above is going to be big and heavy, but I'd still like to go as portable as possible just in case I ever do need to take it to school or anywhere else, even though it'll be at home 90% of the time. Big and heavy isn't a dealbreaker, but between two similar models I'd prefer the lighter one. For the same reason, while a 17" wouldn't be a dealbreaker, I'd prefer a 15"
Budget is ~$1200, I could go as high as $1500 but only if it's really worth it. If the extra $300 or so would get a whole other level of performance I could do it, but it's not worth it to me if it's only going to net me like an extra 5fps in games or something like that.
Thanks in advance to anyone who answers, I realize this is a long post to read through. Since I'm going to be using this computer for quite some time I really want to make sure I spend the money wisely, and like I said, information on laptops seems to be relatively scarce compared to desktop parts.
