Assistance w/Laptop for College

1. What is your budget? ~$1500 max

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14" or higher I guess? Screen size means little, a keyboard that isn't punishing my fingers for being fat would be the main issue.

3. What screen resolution do you want? no preference

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

5. How much battery life do you need? 6h+, the more the better (library is my new home)

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)? No Games

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? folding@home when recharging/not in use but have charger hooked up; SPDIF/good sound card for headphones/music

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 300gb+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. newegg.com or bestbuy.com

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4y+

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD RW

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. Avoiding Apple. First laptop was a Powerbook G4, obsolete within 2 years thanks to the intel deal. They lost my business in the laptop market. Prefer Intel and Nvidia.

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I've heard everything from "You'll be fine with a netbook" to "You'll need something beefy" regarding laptops in Applied Science, so I'm really drawing a blank here on what's needed.