[ndog14]

Hello,

I'll make it simple. Dell Studio 1558, i7 Q720@1.60Ghz, 8GB Ram, 500GB Drive, Radeon HD 5470, 2 years old, out of warranty. It's kaput. The thing freezes for no reason anymore and I'm forced to do a hard shut down; one time it froze during start-up and the computer shut itself off. Today in a 3 hours period it froze twice while watching Netflix, once while on Facebook, and once when I had the lid closed in idle. I can't deal with it anymore, I quit gaming because of it and now this problem is conflicting with my studies which just sends me up the wall!

I'm in the market for a new laptop. Because of geographical locations I have to go with a my laptop from either CostCo or Best Buy. My budget is about $1.1k, my parents are paying since this is crucial to my education. I am looking for a laptop that I can use for my classes and play WoW and SWTOR. I am not looking for a high end rig that will run 120fps with graphics on high.

My dad's friends, my dad's friends are into gaming such as Flight Sim and that, at work recommend either an Alienware or Asus. I've also looked at Toshibas, Sony VAIOs, and regular Dells with upgrades. He does not want to buy an HP because of his past experience with them. I'm looking at approximately 15" laptops since I have to take it to class, also a number pad would be helpful for Excell and Access.

Any help would be much appreciated, I have a few papers that are coming up so I need this to be resolved quickly.