Gaming Laptop and where to buy

[Riuse]

For college my family decided to gift me and my brother a laptop each and since I'm somehow the most tech savvy person among them I'm the one tasked with choosing a laptop.

However I'm having two issues.

My first problem is finding a site that will fit my complex shipping needs.
The laptop for me will be shipped to California so I'd like to avoid companies based there that will apply sales taxes, this means I won't use sites like newegg or cyberpowerpc.
On the other hand the laptop for my brother will be sent to Massachusetts so I cannot use xoticpc with their policy to "only ship to the exact address listed on the credit card billing statement for all credit card orders" because the person actually buying the laptop will be in California.

The only reputable site I've found so far that meets my shipping needs is powernotebooks, but unfortunately their selection is somewhat limited in my price range. It would be great if you could point me to some other sites.

Which brings us to the second problem, actually choosing the laptop.
My price range is anything below 1100$
The size I'm looking for is 15" to 16"
The purpose of the laptop will be both gaming and study
It should last at least 4 years.

The two best configurations I can come up with on powernotebooks are the following:

Sager NP7358 - 1114$

Spoiler

screen - 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
GPU - nVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 128bit w/2.0GB GDDR5
CPU - Intel® Core™ i7-4810MQ (2.8~3.8GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads - SPECIAL SALE! $100 OFF
RAM - 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3L/1600 Dual Channel Memory
HDD - 1TB SATA II 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Optical Drive - Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
Memory Card Reader - 9-in-1 Memory Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini?SD/SDHC/SDXC)
Wireless Networking - Built-in Intel Wireless-AC 7260 802.11 ac/a/b/g/n + Bluetooth 4.0 (Dual Band) - free upgrade
Battery - 8 Cell Smart Lithium-Ion Battery 76.96Wh
OS - Windows 8.1 - (64-bit installed w/DVD and Drivers disk included)

Sager NP6658 - 1034$

Spoiler

screen - 15.6-inch Wide (1920x1080) FHD Matte LED-Backlit Display
GPU - nVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 128bit w/2.0GB GDDR5
CPU - Intel® Core™ i7-4810MQ (2.8~3.8GHz) w/6M L3 Cache - 4 Cores - 8 Threads - SPECIAL SALE! $100 OFF
RAM - 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3L/1600 Dual Channel Memory
HDD - 750GB SATA II 3Gb/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive
Optical Drive - Combo Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
Memory Card Reader - 9-in-1 Memory Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini?SD/SDHC/SDXC)
Wireless Networking - Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN + Bluetooth™ V4.0 Combo Card
Battery - 6-cell Smart Li-ion Battery (62.16Wh)
OS - Windows 8.1 - (64-bit installed w/DVD and Drivers disk included)

The NP7358 has better GPU, HDD and (supposedly) Wireless network but it is slightly above my price range, moreover I've read that it has a shared heatsink for GPU and CPU, which is bad.
On the other hand I can't find virtually any information about the NP6658, which is maybe worse.
If I add another 55$ to the NP6658 I could improve it to have the same HDD and Wireless network as the NP7358 configuration, although I have no idea if it is worth it.

Any input is appreciated and thanks in advance

 

[Felipe259]

Well you can still try XoticPC, just call the credit card company and ask to add a note about the Massachusets address. Or maybe try to pay getting the cash discount? Also Xotic seems to have a better price than powernotebooks.

About the HDD both are 7200rpm so don't worry about upgrading it to 1tb because what you want to be doing is upgrade to an SSD. This Kingston one is $55 only and although it isn't the faster you will notice a huge improvement from an HDD.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A1ZTZOG/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=20GAES5JB6FGU&coliid=I2W7AM21MITB5B&psc=1

Between the two Sagers I'd go with the NP7358 because of the GTX 860m, but if you want to save your money and maybe add more Ram, SSD (is a must), cooling pad, headset, etc. then the NP6658 has the advantage.