I know you mentioned you don't like Dell, but I own the Dell XPS15 and I am sure the subsequent laptops in that series are just as awesome as this one. I have had this thing for 2 years and I abuse the hell out of it. It has done really well for me and has excellent gaming capabilities. It is a little bulky but still portable and reliable. I have only recently had problems with it, having the battery die but that's only due to extreme overuse. I got mine for about 1k.