[Mike Langensiepen]

Well US$1200 should get something reasonable. I have a Toshiba 17″ Screen i7 and that cost me AU$1700 (about US$1600) at the time and since then I’ve added a 500GB  SSD and a 1TB hybrid drive to replace the old and slow 1TB.

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GL72M-7RDX-800-Performance-SteelSeries/dp/B072MTXBLM

Oh and don’t be tempted to drop the spec on the processor – V11 of Design really needs it. I’d be looking for an i7-7700HQ as a MINIMUM spec. If you can stretch your budget a little, this laptop is a killer spec for the price even if it is only a 15.6 display!

https://www.amazon.com/N950VR-Notebook-i7-8700-GeForce-Computer/dp/B079NQW3W9/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524784973&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=17%22+laptop+i7-8700

 

And otherwise, here is a relevant Amazon search. 8GB of RAM is fine – I never use the 16GB of RAM my Toshiba has unless I am running a good sized Virtual Machine.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=17%22+laptop+i7-7700hq

MSI are good, Sager are better but you pay a premium. Asus ROGS are good – we’ve got a few (refurbished). Manufacturers refurbished units are fine as they have been through an extensive checking procedure. I’m not a big HP fan but this unit is great for the price:

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Omen-17-W253DX-Gaming-Notebook/dp/B072F7NGDK/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1524784477&sr=8-5&keywords=17%22+laptop+i7-7700hq