New Laptop Advice

Hi guys,

My war-battered HP Pavillion finally died last week. I was thinking about fixing it up or possibly buying a replacement desktop but since I plan on going round the world travelling (TEFL) for the next few years I figured I might as well get a laptop.

I'm not the most technically proficient and some of these things go way over my head, so I would appreciate if someone could give me some advice/recommendations on a laptop to get.

I would not like to spend any more than £700 on it, £500-£600 would be ideal.

Screen size does not bother me too much, a 15" would be fine. Battery life also doesn't concern me either, as long as it's reasonable.

The laptop will be primarily for work and internet access but I would also like to play games on it, especially for the next 6 months before I move away. I would really like to invest in something that would be relatively future proof and would therefore like to buy a laptop with a dedicated graphics card that can handle DirectX 10.

Games I play are: WoW, L4D and RTS/TurnbasedStrategy games. I'm not into graphics-heavy FPS's but as I mentioned earlier would still like DirectX10 support for the future. I would like to be able to play the above games on HIGH settings if possible too!

I'd just like to purchase a reliable laptop that can do all the above. Brand names dont bother me, nor does the aesthetic design of the casing. Something functional and hardy would be good, a model without overheating problems and all that..

I was quite attracted to the ASUS G1S which looked ideal but unfortunately I cant find a trader in the UK that still has them in stock.

Would really appreciate any suggestions you guys might have.

I'm in the UK as well, so UK links/traders if possible. =D