Help me choose....

[diluzio91]

pending on the m11x sale, i want to replace it with a nice laptop. my requirements were 14-15 inch screen, and a discreet gpu that can play starcraft 2 and some other not extremely demanding games, i also need a pretty high res screen, none of that 1366x786 crap, a back lit keyboard is definatly needed. the 11" screen isnt doing it for me anymore... So far the ones i have picked out are the alienware m14x, and the dell 15z... both are around 1200, but i would prefer the 14 inch form factor, or the very thin 15 inch... i can spend about 1200, but not a whole lot more. i'm open to other suggestions though. feel free to chip in with any advice.

[Fuganater]

15" Dell XPS

[diluzio91]

hmm....

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP5165


or

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dndodq1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=xps-l502x

with the 1080p upgrade...

[Fuganater]

buy from dell and use a coupon

Using the dell link you gave you can get
XPS 15 XPS 15
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Processor 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i5-2410M processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
Memory 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Keyboard Backlit Keyboard - English
LCD 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
Hard Drive 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Color Elemental Silver Aluminum
Integrated Network Adapter Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe Reader Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
CD ROM/DVD ROM Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Sound JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Wireless Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 & Bluetooth 3.0
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 30-Day Trial
Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Service 1 Year Basic Service Plan
Datasafe Online DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
Mobile Broadband No Mobile Broad Band Selected

1249.99 with the $100 off Coupon 0QZNX8B2J326BZ


If I had more time I would customize more for you but look at these 2 as well.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=dncwdr5&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=xps-l502x

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=fncww031&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=xps-15z

[x88x]

There's the Thinkpad T420. Configured with i5-2520M, 4GB DDR3-1333 (1 DIMM), 500GB 7200RPM HDD, nVidia NVS 4200M, and 1600x900 LED backlit display, it comes to $1,100. Adding bluetooth and a 720p integrated webcam and upgrading to an i5-2540M brings it to $1,200 (i5-2520M is base, i5-2540M is $50 upgrade, i7-2620M is $190 upgrade from base).
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?sb=%3A00000025%3A00002D6F%3 A&smid=158789389E999C7AFD948ECE84C546E5

Oh, and that's at the 14" size slot you were looking for. ;)