ASUS N56VM laptop - thinking of getting it, any alternatives?

Hey duders I've been looking to get a new laptop that will do me for my Computing Science degree and to play games at a reasonable level.

So far http://asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=N56VM-S4034V-16GB is the best I've found for just that..Just wondered if anyone out there had any better suggestions? I want it to be able to play new games pretty well and be a fast computer, preferably with blu ray player but I guess I dont /need/ that.

Any suggestions out there? or should I just stick with that asus?

Honestly, what would you do with a BD? If you're thinking of playing Blu-Ray movies from your PC to your laptop and you want to burn movies you downloaded, may as well just get a HDMI cable and hook it up and not have to worry about buying expensive blank BDs. That's the only reason I can think of why you'd actually need on of those.

You'll definitely be able to play most games fine, but not graphically intense ones - laptops just aren't cut out for that. It's a really great laptop, I would get it if I were you.

Asus are a great brand. This machine will play most games out there but I wouldn't call it a gaming machine . Most notebook don't have fantastic cooling so it may run quite hot when playing games. This is a good all round machine, but if it is dedicated gaming you should go up to the gaming Models with the GTX card or look at a tower.

I picked up a Lenovo Y580 (configuration 209942U) recently for around 1100USD. All the Y580s have a GTX 660m and i7-3610QM but this configuration adds 8GB ram, a blu-ray burner and a 1080p display. Not as pretty as that Asus but it gets the job done. Oh, and backlit keyboard =p

While I realize its not going to play games at high settings or anything. My current laptop/desktop can hardly run newer games at all.

So this would be quite the step up I guess. I'm looking on the same site at the different versions.

They offer a 6 gig, 8 gig, 12 gig and 16 gig RAM alternative. Would I see a huge difference if I went lower?

Trying to save a little money but still maintain being able to play some games

Also, been looking at http://asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=N55SL-S2019V-12GB as well. its a bit cheaper and has a slightly better graphics card I think?