[Solved] Need a Notebook

1_What is your budget?
$1000 - $1400

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6" - 17"

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Whatever goes best with the above sizes

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
portableish will be taking it to the university

5_How much battery life do you need?
2.5 + hrs

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)?
yes, should be able to play current and upcoming games at high or med settings, will be using it to play new games like mass effect, bad company 2 and lots of MMORPGS

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Photo / Video editing,watching movies

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
500gb minimum

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
walmart, hp.com, costco and anything else ( not newegg, amazon, ebay or dell) (preferable a U.S. based company)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
All four years of university atleast

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM/Writer; blueray would be great

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.
anything but dell; bought an xps 16 from them, took them 2 months to deliver a defective piece that even the tech they sent couldn't fix and the replacement would have taken another 2 months, so no thanks.

13_What country do you live in?
United States

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Looking for a new notebook nothing that came out 4+ years ago. Will buy an alienware if there is one in my range that is sold in a retail store (walmart, costco, bestbuy, etc; not online). Also, any notebook that would be coming out in the next two months would be ok.

Thanks in advance,
Shad

Best answer selected by shad08.