First Owned Laptop for College

1. What is your budget? $800.00

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Undecided, between 15-17"

3. What screen resolution do you want? Guess it would depend on screen size but the higher the better.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Both I guess. This laptop will be replacing my old desktop but I need something I can bring back back and forth from my partent's house, to my dorm room, to my friends house, to the library. I highly doubt ill bring it to class to often though.

5. How much battery life do you need? Around 2 hours, but would not mind keeping it plugged in for periods of long use.

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 I would like to play games such as SC2, WoW, and CS4 on max settings.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) I am going to school for Computer Animation so both photo and video editing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 300GB should be plenty

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Most likely newegg.com but anywhere that is reliable.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? At least 4 years, if not more.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Would like to to play Blurays

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. I hear a lot of good things about Asus, overall not to into brand names as long as they are reliable.

13. What country do you live in? United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. This is my first time buying a Laptop. I have $800 from graduation but can save more if absolutely needed for my dream machine. My old desktop is now my Sister's so I really want to make sure this thing can do everything I need it to. I liked the idea of a 17.3" multimedia laptop but my Dad recommended a 15.6" for school because it is more portable.

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np516 [...] -2999.html
It can handle those games fine on medium settings(or high on low resolutions)

GamerJay005, I'd recommend you go with Maziar suggestion with the Sager notebook. That Asus G72 you were looking at was 2 generations old, it would not last you 4+ years. The current version of that Asus line is the G74, I have a g73, and it's great, I'd totally recommend getting something in the line, but don't put youself down by getting an older generation computer that is also, recertified...

If you are interested in the G7 series line-up, look at this from bestbuy, it is bound to be the cheapest G74 deal: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+- [...] &cp=1&lp=1