Canadian looking for gaming laptop

[observatory8068]

1. What is your budget?
1000 to 1500 USD...but close to 1000 as possible. I use USD for our international audience.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6-inch

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080 or 1050 vertical. 16:10 or 16:9. The screen's image quality should be good

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Mostly desktop replacement

5. How much battery life do you need?
2 hours...not important

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)?
I wish to play modern/latest games at mid-settings.


7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Gaming is the most intense. Nothing too hard after that.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
THIS IS IMPORTANT: I wish for a dual drive- SSD for 60-80GB, HDD for 300GB and up. I know there is a method of taking one's optical drive and inserting an individually bought SSD...but never having tried that, I prefer one that already includes it. I don't wish to void the warranty.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
None

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3yr

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Not important...except for OS disks. I suppose it can be copied to USB drives?

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.
None.

13. What country do you live in?
CANADA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

To summarize: a good quality screen at the above resolutions, a mid-high range GPU, and a two-drive HDD + SDD option are the most important considerations, all as close to 1000 USD as possible.

.....

I would like to ask one more thing: the last time I bought a laptop, it was from Xotic Pc, and I loved the selection, but there was one thing I hated: it was located in the US. As a Canadian, I REALLY want to find Xotic PC-like shops in Canada, because I do not want to go to the experience of RMA-ing a unit with the kind of cross-border shipping charges i had to endure. (this is, of course, of no fault to Xotic). Or even any shipping costs. I've had enuf of that.


Thanks for your expert advice.

 

[wintermint]

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5160-clevo-w150hn-p-2999.html

Use this. Sager has good performance for what you pay. Xotic also ships to Canada.

 

[Azorlorn]

At this price range, Sager wins

I agree with wintermint

 

[WR2]

I know there is a method of taking one's optical drive and inserting an individually bought SSD...but never having tried that, I prefer one that already includes it.

Optical Drive Bay Hard Drive Caddy is the term you're probably looking for - and it's a $45 option at XoticPC.

You can probably squeeze a nicely configured Sager NP5165 into toward the lower end of you budget and think about playing a lot of games on high settings.

 

[WR2]

http://www.buydirectpc.com/custom-laptop.html
This seems to be the only Canadian custom laptop builder that google could scare up. Prices seem tilted toward the higher end products.