Looking for a midrange laptop

[irralis]

So, my trusty old Alienware from my college days finally died and I'm looking to replace it. I'm an engineer who's built more than enough desktop systems, but it's been so long since I've even looked at laptops that I feel a little out of the loop. The primary use I'm looking for is as a development system when I'm out of the office/programming my hobby projects, so it needs to be beefy enough to handle 2 Visual studios and a Sql Server Management studio simultaneously. That's hardly a tall order, and most anything with an i5 and 8gb RAM should do just fine.

Onto where I need the most help. I'd like to be able to play a handful of games on it too; primarily things like Hearthstone, League of Legends, D3, perhaps a few new-ish titles like Thief or Shadow of Mordor, and maybe even light (not raiding) WoW if I relapse again (shiver). I'm okay with playing on low settings while I'm on the road but I would like a reasonably steady framerate. Will I be able to pull that sort of thing off on integrated graphics?

I also have no idea what brand names I should be looking for. I used to buy Dell but it's been years and people tell me I can get better value for my dollar elsewhere.

To sum it all up, I'm looking for what I'd call a midrange-ish laptop that I can program on during the day and then relax with some light games. I don't care how thin it is, how much it weighs, or really even what it looks like because it's mostly gonna sit on a desk in a hotel. I really want a 17" inch screen but I'm willing to pull down to 15" if I have to. Ideally I want something no more than $500-600, but I'm flexible to some degree. Links to computer would be great, but advice on what to look for would also be helpful.

Budget: $500-$600 but flexible
Resolution; Whatever I can get on a 17" screen
Games / Settings Desired: Hearthstone, League of Legends, D3, newer games. Low settings okay but want decent framerate
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): Computer is primarily for C# development
Country: US
Parts that can be reused: Laptop so none
Do you need an OS? N/A
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? Nope

[jcf190]

http://www.xoticpc.com/

[Kagthul]

Onto where I need the most help. I'd like to be able to play a handful of games on it too; primarily things like Hearthstone, League of Legends, D3, perhaps a few new-ish titles like Thief or Shadow of Mordor, and maybe even light (not raiding) WoW if I relapse again (shiver). I'm okay with playing on low settings while I'm on the road but I would like a reasonably steady framerate. Will I be able to pull that sort of thing off on integrated graphics?

.. not really, no. iGPU's are awful. Im not sure about finding a laptop with a discrete GPU in your price range, but anything is possible.

I also have no idea what brand names I should be looking for. I used to buy Dell but it's been years and people tell me I can get better value for my dollar elsewhere.

To sum it all up, I'm looking for what I'd call a midrange-ish laptop that I can program on during the day and then relax with some light games. I don't care how thin it is, how much it weighs, or really even what it looks like because it's mostly gonna sit on a desk in a hotel. I really want a 17" inch screen but I'm willing to pull down to 15" if I have to. Ideally I want something no more than $500-600, but I'm flexible to some degree. Links to computer would be great, but advice on what to look for would also be helpful.

Budget: $500-$600 but flexible
Resolution; Whatever I can get on a 17" screen
Games / Settings Desired: Hearthstone, League of Legends, D3, newer games. Low settings okay but want decent framerate
Any other intensive software or special things you do (Frequent video encoding, 3D modeling, etc): Computer is primarily for C# development
Country: US
Parts that can be reused: Laptop so none
Do you need an OS? N/A
Do you need peripherals (e.g. monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc)? Nope

Gonna be hard pressed to get the specs you want AND 17".

Ill see what i can dig up.

- - - Updated - - -

That link that JTC posted is actually pretty good.. im rather appalled at how far up the chain you have to go to get a laptop with a discrete GPU that isn't completely awful.

[irralis]

.. not really, no. iGPU's are awful. Im not sure about finding a laptop with a discrete GPU in your price range, but anything is possible.

Gonna be hard pressed to get the specs you want AND 17".

Ill see what i can dig up.

- - - Updated - - -

That link that JTC posted is actually pretty good.. im rather appalled at how far up the chain you have to go to get a laptop with a discrete GPU that isn't completely awful.

Yeah, I was afraid of that but sort of expected it. I need the processing power and I would REALLY like the screen size though, so if it comes down to it, I'll just bite the bullet, use the integrated graphics, and just not game on it.