Hello!

I am a student that likes to use Unity 3D for game development!

I am a sole developer and I have to work on Sounds, Coding, Animations, Models, Art everything to make a game!

But I can't drag my desktop to college now can I?
I need a laptop!

But... Which one do I need?

It doesn't matter about the price or shape or weight just how useful it will be!

What it needs is to be powerful (moderately) I need to be able to make games, but of course I need to be able to test them without the risk of losing frames, I also need to be able to plug in my Drawing Tablet for artwork.

I don't know much about the things inside the computer as long as it works well I am fine.

What would be useful:

Lots of memory (At least 1TB+)

It needs to load websites and scripts FAST!

It needs to not crash every second like my last one...

It needs to not have a low battery life, at least 4 hours or more, I cant have it running out in the middle of class now can I?

Built in camera to record my face for streams.

Built in MIC (I don't want to plug earphones in unless I am in class )

I don't know much about processors like I said so it would be useful if you could help me out on what I need to do to get a laptop that can code make sounds and artwork ect...

What I will use the laptop for:

Streaming on Twitch! (I like to stream and have fun there to show my developing)

Watching YouTube (Like some nice music in the background of coding)

Coding

Making sounds and music for my games

Digital Artwork with a Tablet

Animations

Modeling (Blender or Maya)

Like I said Price is no issue a powerful PC that can run multiple applications at the same time with a camera and mic already built in.

I would likely have

Unity, Maya/Blender, a program to develop sounds (haven't found one yet), Krita(Or other digital art programs), something to make animations (haven't found that either) all ran at the same time on my laptop.

that's about it I hope you can help

(I think im using Unity but I may switch to Unreal/Cryengine)

EDIT:

I'm also British so please send links where it wont cost me all my money for the transportation of the object and hopefully the website has an option where I can see the price in GBP (£)

EDIT 2:

I need it for college projects and when I travel, I cant bring a desktop computer with a massive motherboard on a train or a plane, or in the middle of a class drag a massive computer in. :D

But I can't drag my desktop to college now can I?

You absolutely can. Why do you think you can't? That's probably a far better idea than spending more money on a new laptop. You could probably use that money elsewhere. Or save it.

But I can't drag my desktop to college now can I?

You absolutely can. Why do you think you can't? That's probably a far better idea than spending more money on a new laptop. You could probably use that money elsewhere. Or save it.

I think he means to use it in class (Even though he didn't specifically mention it as a reson to get it)

"Built in MIC (I don't want to plug earphones in unless I am in class )"

But I can't drag my desktop to college now can I?

You absolutely can. Why do you think you can't? That's probably a far better idea than spending more money on a new laptop. You could probably use that money elsewhere. Or save it.

But I would need to bring it back home then by to college, in the college im at you don't sleep there you go home and return in the morning, I think its different where you live and I cant leave it at college with nobody there it could get stolen or somebody else could use it, and I have no other use for the money, besides games for the desktop, finally the desktop is running out of memory and it is jam packed with crap I do when not developing so it would be useful to have a fresh laptop dedicated to developing games.

finally the desktop is running out of memory and it is jam packed with crap I do when not developing so it would be useful to have a fresh laptop dedicated to developing games.

I guess in that case I'd buy an additional hard drive of the desktop and a cheap laptop for school. The laptop I used at the university was about three years old and not that powerful. I installed an SSD so that it boots faster but that's it. For the stuff I actually need to do in class it was more than powerful enough (and I could have used a stationary PC in one of the computer labs otherwise). For everything else I just used my desktop system at home.
And if you have no other use for the money just save it. The time will come when you need it and then you'll regret if you've spent it on hardware that you didn't actually need.

I think he probably means he can't drag his desktop with him to class every day.

Honestly, probably any good-quality laptop will serve you. I've personally owned Lenovo, Apple, and Dell laptops and have been satisfied with all of them, but my family has had some trouble with Dell laptops (probably because they bought from the less-expensive end of the spectrum). For me, the Apple was the nicest in terms of fit and finish, and at the time was a pretty good value for what I paid, especially considering the very-usable trackpad that Apple laptops use -- I still have and use it, even though its from 2008 (I've upgraded to 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD), I just two weeks ago installed the latest OS X on it. But, the Lenovo certainly gave me more hardware bang for my buck, and I like it because I can dock it at home and use it with my nice keyboard and mouse, and three monitors (You can do this with many laptops, including Macs).

I say you want to look at 4-5 key traits:

• Screen size: too small a screen gives you too little room to work with and also usually implies that there's no physical or thermal room to have a higher-end processor or discrete graphics (there are some exceptions, mostly if you give up on also being thin), too large means you've got a bulky laptop that's hard to fit in a bag, and is likely heavy. I'd recommend something between 14 and 16 inches as a good compromise between physical size and utility.
• Screen resolution: Many inexpensive laptops still use 1366x768 screens which also limited the amount of room you have to work in. Its not even really sufficient for Visual Studio or another IDE, let alone Unity, let alone both Unity and and IDE. I wouldn't personally accept anything less than 1920x1080. My Lenovo is 1920x1080 on a 15.6" screen.
• RAM Capacity: For creating content, you probably want 8GB RAM minimum, and preferably 16GB. A content consumer can get by on 4 and should prefer 8, but keep in mind you'll be working with in-progress assets that are raw and likely uncompressed during development. In my lenovo, I have 32GB. Beware that many of today's laptops, especially thinner ones and 'ultralights' cannot have their RAM upgraded, you have to order what you want from the factory and be happy with it.
• SSD drive: I know you want a big, 1TB drive, but you should absolutely sacrifice that to get an SSD (even a modestly-sized one), if you have to. With USB3 or thunderbolt, an external spinning drive is just as fast as if it were inside your computer, and if your SSD is too small to store your music and video media, but you don't want to plug in an external drive just to listen to your tunes, a large, good quality SD card is plenty fast to stream music and video from. Luckily, many laptops today offer a 2.5" HDD bay, plus a small-form-factor SSD connector of some kind (either M.2, or mSata), so you have have both if you like.This is what I do in my Lenovo.
• Keyboard and pointing device: If you're going to spend a lot of time using it, you want a nice keyboard with a good, full-size layout -- and one which won't break from heavy use and/or is easily serviceable. My Lenovo would be super-easy to replace if it broke, literally a 3 minute fix, but my Mac not so much. Pointing devices are the same, you won't always have room to use a mouse so the track-pad should be at least passable. Mac's a head and shoulders above most others in the trackpad department, I have no trouble at all using it and found myself going without a mouse many times even when I had room (I could even imagine using it for a short Unity session). I don't like the Lenovo one so much, but it and the trackpoint nub are sufficient for web browsing and document/IDE tasks (though I wouldn't want to use either for typical Unity tasks).

Bonus -- Docking: And I mean real docking, not some lame everything-including-video-over-USB3 'solution' (thunderbolt would be fine, probably, as video transmits over the displayport link). Its really nice to come back to your office or dorm room or wherever and drop into a dock and instantly have several nice monitors (especially with Unity I find you want at least two screens -- one for Unity and another for your IDE), a great keyboard and mouse, a wired Ethernet connection, and maybe a DAS/NAS drive array.

For specific recommendations, I would say if money is not a great concern, consider a MacBook pro (though they're due to receive updates around June/July, most likely). The newest Razor Blade is similar in style and has a similar trackpad, and gets you more hardware for your dollar, so that'd be one to look at too. Otherwise consider a 'workstation-class' notebook from Lenovo (something like the W540 -- mine is a W530) or possibly HP (who's been making very solidly-reviewed professional products as of late).

If you're on a tighter budget, you can probably find something with lower-end discrete graphics, or an intel broadwell processor with HD5000-series graphics, or the last-gen intel Haswell processor with HD4600 graphics or higher (preferably iris or iris pro graphics) which would probably be passible. If AMD had a lighter touch on battery life I'd recommend them, since their integrated graphics are twice as good as anything intel offers, but alas that's not the case with current APU products -- however, their next APU "Carrizo" is due very soon (< 6 weeks, likely) and supposedly increases performance 30% while cutting power-consumption by half. That would make them a competitive choice to intel -- the CPU will still be slower, but the GPU would embarrass intel's, so you could consider which kind of performance was more important to you.

To risk sounding like a hipster, I would recommend a MacBook Pro, because it fits all of the above criteria.

I personally would get a MacBook Air if I were in the laptop market. Weight is top in my priority list.

I think he probably means he can't drag his desktop with him to class every day.

Honestly, probably any good-quality laptop will serve you. I've personally owned Lenovo, Apple, and Dell laptops and have been satisfied with all of them, but my family has had some trouble with Dell laptops (probably because they bought from the less-expensive end of the spectrum). For me, the Apple was the nicest in terms of fit and finish, and at the time was a pretty good value for what I paid, especially considering the very-usable trackpad that Apple laptops use -- I still have and use it, even though its from 2008 (I've upgraded to 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD), I just two weeks ago installed the latest OS X on it. But, the Lenovo certainly gave me more hardware bang for my buck, and I like it because I can dock it at home and use it with my nice keyboard and mouse, and three monitors (You can do this with many laptops, including Macs).

I say you want to look at 4-5 key traits:

• Screen size: too small a screen gives you too little room to work with and also usually implies that there's no physical or thermal room to have a higher-end processor or discrete graphics (there are some exceptions, mostly if you give up on also being thin), too large means you've got a bulky laptop that's hard to fit in a bag, and is likely heavy. I'd recommend something between 14 and 16 inches as a good compromise between physical size and utility.
• Screen resolution: Many inexpensive laptops still use 1366x768 screens which also limited the amount of room you have to work in. Its not even really sufficient for Visual Studio or another IDE, let alone Unity, let alone both Unity and and IDE. I wouldn't personally accept anything less than 1920x1080. My Lenovo is 1920x1080 on a 15.6" screen.
• RAM Capacity: For creating content, you probably want 8GB RAM minimum, and preferably 16GB. A content consumer can get by on 4 and should prefer 8, but keep in mind you'll be working with in-progress assets that are raw and likely uncompressed during development. In my lenovo, I have 32GB. Beware that many of today's laptops, especially thinner ones and 'ultralights' cannot have their RAM upgraded, you have to order what you want from the factory and be happy with it.
• SSD drive: I know you want a big, 1TB drive, but you should absolutely sacrifice that to get an SSD (even a modestly-sized one), if you have to. With USB3 or thunderbolt, an external spinning drive is just as fast as if it were inside your computer, and if your SSD is too small to store your music and video media, but you don't want to plug in an external drive just to listen to your tunes, a large, good quality SD card is plenty fast to stream music and video from. Luckily, many laptops today offer a 2.5" HDD bay, plus a small-form-factor SSD connector of some kind (either M.2, or mSata), so you have have both if you like.This is what I do in my Lenovo.
• Keyboard and pointing device: If you're going to spend a lot of time using it, you want a nice keyboard with a good, full-size layout -- and one which won't break from heavy use and/or is easily serviceable. My Lenovo would be super-easy to replace if it broke, literally a 3 minute fix, but my Mac not so much. Pointing devices are the same, you won't always have room to use a mouse so the track-pad should be at least passable. Mac's a head and shoulders above most others in the trackpad department, I have no trouble at all using it and found myself going without a mouse many times even when I had room (I could even imagine using it for a short Unity session). I don't like the Lenovo one so much, but it and the trackpoint nub are sufficient for web browsing and document/IDE tasks (though I wouldn't want to use either for typical Unity tasks).

Bonus -- Docking: And I mean real docking, not some lame everything-including-video-over-USB3 'solution' (thunderbolt would be fine, probably, as video transmits over the displayport link). Its really nice to come back to your office or dorm room or wherever and drop into a dock and instantly have several nice monitors (especially with Unity I find you want at least two screens -- one for Unity and another for your IDE), a great keyboard and mouse, a wired Ethernet connection, and maybe a DAS/NAS drive array.

For specific recommendations, I would say if money is not a great concern, consider a MacBook pro (though they're due to receive updates around June/July, most likely). The newest Razor Blade is similar in style and has a similar trackpad, and gets you more hardware for your dollar, so that'd be one to look at too. Otherwise consider a 'workstation-class' notebook from Lenovo (something like the W540 -- mine is a W530) or possibly HP (who's been making very solidly-reviewed professional products as of late).

If you're on a tighter budget, you can probably find something with lower-end discrete graphics, or an intel broadwell processor with HD5000-series graphics, or the last-gen intel Haswell processor with HD4000 graphics (preferable iris 4200 or iris pro 4600) which would probably be passible. If AMD had a lighter touch on battery life I'd recommend them, since their integrated graphics are twice as good as anything intel offers, but alas that's not the case with current APU products -- however, their next APU "Carrizo" is due very soon (< 6 weeks, likely) and supposedly increases performance 30% while cutting power-consumption by half. That would make them a competitive choice to intel -- the CPU will still be slower, but the GPU would embarrass intel's, so you could consider which kind of performance was more important to you.

would I need an SSD Drive? What differences would it change to a normal laptop? How would I install one ect. and what do you mean by Docking?, more monitors? Because if I were going for more monitors I would stick with my desktop, if im going to do hardcore game designing I would result to my Desktop but I want a laptop so when im away for like a week on a holiday I can still do some basic coding and work here and there, I might just have a laptop for coding and leave the modeling to my pc, if it works fast, well and is easy to use to develop game im fine with it.

EDIT:

I have had a look and I see what you mean with the thunderbolt ect. I don't think I would need a thunderbolt as I am not using a laptop for my life I use desktop and laptop for college and when im traveling so I think a basic laptop that can run my 3d games and make them would do.

http://store.apple.com/uk/buy-mac/macbook-pro?afid=p238%257CsbOuPsHFv-dc_mtid_187079nc38483_pcrid_62273412973_&cid=aos-uk-kwg-mac&product=MGXA2B/A&step=config#

Ive been looking at this and it says customize, would you recommend any options I should pick in the customize area (configure) and is it a good choice for a laptop? I need one pretty soon and money will come but maybe not too high as thousands of £s aren't gonna come in a year or 2

Macs really are pretty well put together, and when you consider that they're competing with higher-end PC vendors like Sony or Asus' higher-end offerings, and not bargain-basement Dell's, etc, they really are pretty cost competetive on a feature-by-feature basis. I was debating someone on a forum recently where we broke down competetive options considering hardware and build-quality -- the most competetive non-Mac any of us could find was about $250 less expensive for identical hardware (CPU, RAM, SSD, external ports and such) and a subjectively-similar build quality -- but the PC machine also lacked a retina-style display resolution and the excellent apple trackpads. For my money, those two features would be $250 well-spent.

The trouble with a MacBook pro, really, is that they were an early adopter of the soldered-down, non-expandible RAM and internally-sealed battery. I don't particularly like this, especially on a machine meant for serious work, and their upgrades are limited and tend to be a bit overpriced if you want the top configuration -- but unfortunately I think this is the trend for PCs too, and so its difficult to fault them now that others are following suit for being an early leader. I don't like it, but they're no long alone in being guilty of it.

The other problem is that they really only play in the market for a content-producer's laptop, between the $1300 and $2600 price-points or so. If you can't spend $1300, you get a PC or try to make due on an Air that's frankly a little anemic for serious content production. Also if you need something more high-end or specialized than what they offer in their most-expensive MacBook Pro, you go for a PC too. This can be particularly difficult to swallow on the GPU side -- if a Geforce GTX750m doesn't cut it for you, you're SOL as far as a mac laptop goes.