Reddit mentions of ASUS ROG G752VT-DH72 17 Inch Gaming Laptop, Nvidia GeForce GTX 970M 3 GB VRAM, 16 GB DDR4, 1 TB, 128 GB NVMe SSD

https://www.amazon.com/G752VT-DH72-Gaming-Laptop-Nvidia-GeForce/dp/B01578ZN0Q
Amazon.com: ASUS ROG G752VT-DH72 17 Inch Gaming Laptop ...

I know you said 1200 is your max, but I would recommend this ASUS ROG G752VT because it comes with everything you need , i7 quad core CPU which is one of the best in the market, recommended for audio production, and great for your usage, 16 GB of ram for smooth multitasking(no lag during work on stage), Good NVMe SSD storage of 128GB for faster boot up and loading (just like you wanted), 1 TB of HDD for storage, Thunderbolt (just like you wanted), Full HD IPS screen which is a must have for this price range, high build quality, very good heat management, and it is within your budget.

If you prefer to spend less and get something without thundebolt 3 and NVMe SSD let me know.

I bought this for $1200 back in Feb 2016

GTX 970M

17.3" screen

i7-5700HQ Processor

16gb ram

It's been an absolute dream. I bring it to work on the weekends and connect it to my second monitor. Fallout 4 runs smooth on med-high settings, Rise of the tomb raider smooth on high settings, and I'm able to multibox WoW with 3 accounts with no issues whatsoever. The M.2 SSD (highly recommend you get a laptop with a m.2 port) makes bootup literally 5 seconds, and everything loads ridiculously fast.

I did a TON of reasearch prior to buying it - I'd even bought a 17" ASUS laptop with similar specs but ended up returning it because it was stupidly bulky and overpriced. MSI in particular seems to have the best value if you're looking for something very high-end (I'd never bought from them before and was a little skeptical, but I've owned this laptop for about 5 months now and couldn't be happier with it)

Only downsides I could say about it is that there's no easy-access panel on the bottom to swap hard drives - you have to completely take off the bottom of the laptop which was kinda scary.

edit: Here's a SS from in-game on ultra settings in horde garrison http://i.imgur.com/PtZVsee.jpg

I agree with the above posts, if you can, avoid buying a Mac if you plan to game on it.

There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, and something that many people fail to take into account, is cooling. Even a top end MacBook pro will likely have issues with thermal throttling if you decide to do any serious gaming on it. This will be very annoying for CPU heavy applications (looking at you NXT).

Price with a Mac is another concern, while the build quality is nice, you wont get the best bang for your buck in terms of hardware for the price.

With that said like some of the previous posts alluded to, look for a laptop with a dedicated GPU. Depending on the generation of laptop and if you go the NVIDIA route, try to stay above 960m cards (current gen 1050m).

I personally have used Asus ROG laptops for over 6 years and they are bulletpeoof from my experience. I used to play competitive Battlefield 3 on my old G75, and currently use a G752 with a 970m. It also has some of the best cooling on the market AND has G-Sync built into the monitor. You wont find that in a Mac. https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01578ZN0Q/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502232069&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=g752&dpPl=1&dpID=41y-NccDXfL&ref=plSrch

TLDR: Mac's suck. Take cooling strongly into consideration, and compare hardware that you get at certain pricepoints between brands to base your decision on.

Can you get anything even good with that much CAD??? /s (As someone who lives close to the border God damn..... that exchange rate On related note I had wonderful time in Vancouver during Boxing week)

Okay being more serious though, there aren't that many Gaming Laptops let alone any laptops with Thunderbolt 3

It makes so much sense to put them in most OEMs have opted out in budget gamging laptops... you have to wonder how much Intel is charging OEMs for those controllers.

• Dell Alienware 15
  
• Asus G752VT-DH72
  
• Acer Predator 15 - 17 could work too but isn't listed on Canadian site*
  
• There is also SAGER NP9758/CLEVO P750DM, but I couldn't find Canadian dist.
  
  All of these are above 1700CAD
  
  Good luck...

i have a modified version of this
https://www.amazon.com/G752VT-DH72-Gaming-Laptop-Nvidia-GeForce/dp/B01578ZN0Q

mine just has a 980M, better ssd and slightly better cpu. can play bdo at 60fps at high.

I would Google best gaming laptops for 2019.
I use an Asus ROG g752vt gaming laptop:
https://www.amazon.com/G752VT-DH72-Gaming-Laptop-Nvidia-GeForce/dp/B01578ZN0Q

I would highly recommend you register an account with Epic games (forums) first and start asking questions there. Its an excellent community and they will respond quickly to all your questions:
https://forums.unrealengine.com/
Then I would get on Twitch live streams on game developing in Unreal 4 and ask questions in the chat. The streamers are generally very helpful: https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/Unreal%20Engine

You just need a fast Windows machine with a good graphics card. You can spend around $1200 and get something good enough.

I have a used https://www.amazon.com/G752VT-DH72-Gaming-Laptop-Nvidia-GeForce/dp/B01578ZN0Q for sale!

If you really want to stay closer to the $1600, go for the ASUS ROG G752VT-DH72 17 Inch Gaming Laptop which would run those games you mentioned easily on ultra settings. It is a great gaming laptop all round. Immense performance power, great cooling and a fantastic build quality.

Nvidia Geforce GTX 970m and an Intel Core i7-6700HQ.

More info www.amazon.com/dp/B01578ZN0Q (This is basically my computer)

Check: http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gs40-phantom001-eta-mid-oct-2015-p-8719.html

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01578ZN0Q/ref=psdc_565108_t3_B015QZVAF2

You should link all three computers if you're gonna do this. No one wants to manually google up all three of these computers.

If this is the correct ROG youre looking at,
https://www.amazon.com/G752VT-DH72-Gaming-Laptop-Nvidia-GeForce/dp/B01578ZN0Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465392882&sr=1-1&keywords=ASUS+ROG+G752VT

And assuming this is the correct MSI,
https://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE72-Apache-Pro-001-i7-6700HQ/dp/B0150PK3FQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1465392948&sr=1-1&keywords=MSI+GE72+Apache+Pro+6QF

The MSI looks to be pretty much the same for less cost. The Predator didn't have an SSD, which Id expect at these prices so I discounted it. It didn't make up for it with anything special. I could be looking at the wrong model though which is why you need to link.

This should help, I think :D