Looking for $400-600 Laptop

1. What is your budget?

$400-600 but I would prefer staying around $500

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

15.6 is perfectly fine

3. What screen resolution do you want?

1366x768 but open to suggestions

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

Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?

The more the better

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 play all types of games anything from medium to high would be fine

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

School work which involves Excel, Unisim, possible other modeling programs but nothing too taxing. I would obviously watch movies, surf, stream music, etc

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

preferably 500GB or higher

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

Wherever it is cheapest

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

at least 5 years or as long as possible

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

dvd Rom is fine

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 would prefer Lenovo, Asus or Acer because I have had bad experience with Toshiba and HP, but I am open to suggestions, It just seemed that the 3 I chose were at the top of their game atm.

13. What country do you live in?

USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I am a senior in college looking for a laptop that will fulfill all of my needs, last a long time, be durable, and somewhat quick. Looking for at least an i-5 or the AMD equivalent
Thanks for your time