If you're comfortable with it, and a local computer shop allows it, you can also custom build rather than getting a boxed paperweight.

My two desktops are custom built, geared for gaming. Good vid card by Nvidia (or two via SLI for better performance), and with a quad core CPU or better. RAM is your friend 8-16GB, at least.

My laptop is a HP POS that I really, really need to replace.

 

I would have to recommend an Asus N53SM, with the link to it Here. Just because it is built to be for multimedia and for use as a semi-high intensity computer. it runs for about a thousand dollars, so not too cheap, but it is good in my experience, and my video production club (we do professional commercials) is going to buy this very laptop for field editing and shooting.

 

I recomend an alien ware
^
I currently have an HP (not a good gaming computer) but im saving up for an Alien Ware
Advantages-As far as i know you would have little to no lag.
Disadvantages-The price
Heres there official website
http://www.alienware.com/

 

You can get laptops better than alienware laptops for much, much, much cheaper. Alienware is kind of just... "I look pretty" and automatically geared towards"gaming," making things simple. :b

HP desktops and laptops - my own experience and from reading - are best for daily activities and aren't really geared towards anything in particular. Personally, I haven't had the best experience with gaming and HP, but it hasn't been..bad.

I have seen positivity towards Acer and ASUS laptops, but I don't know much about them. :/ Toshiba I've seen good and bad about, but mostly when it came to daily stuff, not gaming.

I don't have any specific suggestions, as I am more software-savvy than I am hardware-savvy. Most of my life I have used HP, but my parents also bought my computers/laptops (my dad is intelligent with all things computer and technology, but I never wanted to game).

Though, I can tell you right now... If you plan to bring your laptop to school (or anywhere for that matter) fairly often, staying with a screen smaller than 15" is something you really need to be thinking about. xD And make sure to look at the weight of a laptop before you buy it. A couple pounds too much, and your back/arms will dislike you really fast. My laptop is 17.3", doesn't fit in any laptop carrying things (16" is usually max on bags for laptops), and is really, really heavy... xD

 

SSD is not worth it in a laptop.
And I recommended Toshiba because you had a limit to what you could pay, if you don't have to worry about money then I really recommend the Acer Aspire V3-771G-736b1287BDCaii (Roughly $1500)
I myself am using a Toshiba, I am content with it, but I would've picked a different laptop if I had more money to spend, because Toshiba is cheap.

 

SSD's are very much worth it if you are at all clumsy or are going to carry this in any kind of bag or anywhere where it could get jostled, I have also just found a nice company called Puget Systems where you can pretty much custom assemble your own laptop then they put it together and ship it to you, it can be found Here. I hope this may help.

 

No this won't work, it's an HP.

 

My suggestion ryan,
Research what you want in it and what for
If you are using it for school, an ssd is a must, i have a 550gb ssd in my laptop
<3 it for drops a hdd will corrupt on drops

 

Also try to avoid windows 8 unless it is a touchscreen.

 

That is large for an SSD, as they are harder make have a larger capacity, I have to recomend the asus or the Puget one, as both are extremely qualified for what you want, and the Asus is in the same price range as your HP that you were looking at.

 

I would have to vote for the first one, but I would have to caution you as that you are getting a HDD, which can easily be corrupted if shocked or dropped, I would have to caution you but beyond that, the first one is the better choice of laptops.

 

Avoid Windows 8, unless you have a touchscreen...