New Laptop ASAP <$1500

Hey guys, I would like to start by saying thanks for any help you guys give me. I have been an avid lurker here for a few months and now with my old laptop deciding to take an eternal sleep I thought I would ask for some help.

1_What is your budget?
I want to keep it under $1500.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Any really, was looking at around 15 or so but not picky. Will move up or down. More for performance.

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Any

4_How much battery life do you need?
Will be mostly plugged in

5_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)?
Games is the primary use. I will play on the highest setting possible but med is still fine with me. I dont care about ultra graphics on crysis, just good on other games.

6_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Just internet, hw, nothing special.

7_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Any over 100 is good for me

8_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
anywhere that ships in the US

9_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Hopefully as long as possible but I understand how tech things are. A few years atleast

10_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Any is good, prolly wont watch bluray

11_What country do you live in?
US

12_Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I am open to any suggestions. Please help me out. I am at school and my laptop died. I really need for homework and more importantly games lol.

I had looked at the studio xps' that dell offers and was thinking about the 16 model but didnt know much about the i7 in a laptop. Or the 16 with an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9600 2.8GHz and 1gb GPU upgrade.

Thanks again