Notebook for Graphic Design and moderate gamaing

General Questions

1) What is your budget?

~$1,200

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

US

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

I have no brand preference.

5) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

Graphic Design, Gaming.

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

It will mostly stay at home, but I will occasionally need to take it to clients' and friends' homes.

7) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games?

Yes. Mostly just World of Warcraft. I do a lot of raiding though which is fairly graphic intensive.

8) How many hours of battery life do you need?

Not much. ~2 hours maybe.

9) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

Buying without seeing it is ok as long as there are a good amount of reviews available.

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Windows

Screen Specifics

11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?

Screen resolution isn't that important to me. I'm more concerned with the screen quality.

12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

I don't have a preference,

Build Quality and Design

13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

Very.

14) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?

Soon. Not sure exactly when. ~2 years would be good.

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive?

Space isn't important. Again, I'm more concerned with quality / performance.

16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?

I need to be able to play DVDs


Right now I'm looking at the SXPS 16. It seems like kind of a rip off especially now that they charge a premium for "upgrades" that use to be standard... so I want to look around a bit more.