Buying Laptop

Hey all.
Having just started University I am now in the market to buy a laptop. Ill be using it for Uni work such as programming and word processing but id also like it to be fairly good gaming laptop as well. My budget is around $1500 mark..give or take couple $100. If you need any other information from me let me know.

Was looking at Dell XPS M1730...but like to hear what people think.

Hope to hear some suggestions soon.

Thanks

Are you sure you really need a laptop?

Laptops suck vs desktops in every way, except for just two things:
1) Laptop is portable (ie. small, self-contained)
2) They'll ride through a power cut using battery power.

The benefits of 2) are dubious (eg. your net connection is probably dead if the power goes out)... and if you don't REALLY need the portability, you'll get a lot more bang for your buck buying a desktop.

Is that $1500 in Aussie money or USD? I presume you would want to buy within the country and not risk overseas shipping?

That unit isn't bad, but it's a bit behind the curve these days. If you can afford it, take a look at the newer Studio 17's with the i5 cpu and ATI HD4650 graphics.

Other than specific models, the one thing you do want in a gaming laptop (as you may know) is a good discrete graphics chip and dedicated graphics RAM. Stay away from anything with "integrated" graphics.

I already have a desktop which I built and yes I do want a laptop lol.

$1500 in Aussie dollars and yes rather it be in Australia.

Yup I know what a computer needs to be able to run games efficiently just wanted some ideas from people.