Looking for a decent long term laptop replacement for my PC

Hi guys!

University time is dawning on me and I concluded it's the best time to finally get myself a laptop. At first I wanted an ultrabook to just take to class and take notes, run some graphic programs, surf the web and maybe play some games. However I think this might be a good opportunity and replace my not-so top of the line desktop entirely. I figured I wouldn't really want to be bothered with transferring all of my laptop notes/documents to my desktop and back, and I don't really use my desktop for very demanding stuff (as far as performance goes), so I'd just rather hook my laptop up to my 24" monitor and have all my files in one place.

So I wanted your guys help since the community has already helped me a lot when choosing gadget hardware (Nexus 4 going strong for the 2nd year in my pocket and still one of my best purchases).

Here are the things I'd like my laptop to do/be/have:

-have a decent battery life (6+ hours of moderately straining use like surfing the web managing docs etc)

-have at least 1920x1080 resolution

-be able to be hooked up to my monitor (which has hdmi and dvi)

-be able to run graphic design related programs like autocad

-be at least 13"

-be able to run games that come out until ~2017 on at least low settings (nothing like CoD15 or Crysis 5 but basically if Civ VI or the new StarCraft II expansion comes out I'd like to be able to run it without my computer exploding)

-price range: $1500 is the uncrossable threshold

Any advice would be much appreciated. If you have further questions/suggestions fire away.

I hope this is posted in the proper forum, if not mods feel free to move this.

You're asking for a lot. Laptops with powerful GPUs will always have to sacrifice battery life (even when not being use extensively like when you are browsing the web). You should check the subreddit called r/suggestalaptop; they will be better fit to find a laptop for you.

I'm partial to asus products & recently picked up a G550JK, it has the gtx850m so it's reasonable for games with a good battery life & is around $1000. The only thing I'd change is swapping the dvd drive for a ssd. There's some other options in the ROG line with better graphics cards like the 860 or 870, they should fit what you're after.

Toshiba's Qosmio line of gaming laptops are pretty badass. I have an old Qosmio x302 that can still hang with most of the games on the market, but at the minimum specs. Back when I first got it, I was able to play games on ultra high settings without any hiccups.

I'd caution against this route, gaming laptops of any reasonable power are not really sensible for university use. Get a lightweight netbook that fits in a bag for a couple hundred bucks and spend what you saved pimping your rig. You will always spend a lot more on a gaming laptop than an equivalent desktop, and if you take it to class every day it should be light and convenient, and also not too much of a financial loss if it goes missing.

A friend of mine went through a number of gaming laptops because they were handy for taking to lans. He's given up on the idea and settled for a tidy little mini ITX set up - still portable but can use a proper desktop GPU/CPU and doesn't clock itself down due to overheating.