Going to College!

Hey Guys,

Planning on going to college and cannot find a single laptop that seems to fit my needs. (An affordable one that is.) I'm hoping to avoid bloatware as much as possible but I think I might just wipe it when I get it anyway.

1_What is your budget?
~$1,500

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.4"

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Doesn't Matter

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop Replacement

5_How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't Matter

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)?
Half-Life Trilogy (High)
F.E.A.R. (High)
Team Fortress 2 (High)
And any future games that it plays it decently.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
All the above

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
~250GB 7200RPM

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
http://www.ibuypower.com/

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
>4 Years

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
Plainer the better, I'm sick of all these designer laptops but not really a preference.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Would like to avoid mainstream mainly due to the high fail rate and amount of bloatware. Also are overcharged by 150% and made for idiots.

13_What country do you live in?
USA but wouldn't mind foreign Technology/Laptops

Any and All help is greatly appreciated! This is a lot harder than it looks.

I was just about to post the same link.