Best Laptop /for me/

So I recently sold my razer stealth 13" (I believe it is the V3 model with i7-7500u), along with my disused core v2. I also sold my 2015 MBP 15". This was Razer stealth #3 for me and the first one that I actually enjoyed. Razer is pretty good if you get lucky.

In their place I purchased what appeared to be a fantastic deal: a dell precision 5520, complete with high-end i7 quad core, 4k touchscreen, quadro gpu, 32gb ram, and 1tb ssd, for $1300. It was only a year old and in perfect cosmetic shape. It has also been an unmitigated shitshow disaster. I returned it yesterday for a refund and now have no laptop at all.

The good news with the dell: the gorgeous display
The bad news with the dell: putting a high-end i7 and quadro GPU into such a slim body means the computer can't do much of *anything* for more than a few minutes before it gets overheated. Play a game? Ferget it, completely. Render a video, even a short one? It starts out fine but quickly slows to below real-time 1080p h264 rendering and settles in at around 10-15 fps at normal quality. Solidworks simulations are fine because they run so quickly and I don't think use the GPU at all.
Additionally, the carbon fiber finish looks tacky (it's unpainted CF, and has a rubbery coating that feels nice at first but requires cleaning to not turn gross). The touchpad click is way too loud, as is the keyboard. The chassis is heavy and clunky and creaky, like all "big" laptops not made by apple.

What I want is basically my old razer stealth but with some more CPU power. The reason why I liked my old macbook and kept it around is it could render video in less than half the time of my much newer razer.

With the dell, I was hoping to get a PC laptop with the power of my mac. I have a dell tower and it is fine. It does not overheat in a few minutes and in fact makes nearly no noise at all. Silly me, thinking their laptops were as good as their towers, or any good at all. I also don't like Dell's bloatware. I'm not a fan of razer's candy crush and whatever the hell else they think PC "gamers" want to play, but it is easily uninstalled. Synapse is really good compared to dell's prosupport and other stuff. The "mobile feature enhancement pack" required to adjust things like battery charge threshold and keyboard brightness appears to have been last updated in the year 2003. Keep in mind this model retails from dell (they still sell it) for over $3000:confused_:


So this much is clear, I need a new razer stealth. I really like the idea of having a quad-core stealth. It appears my purchase options are limited, however, as the model I want is being discontinued in favor of a new model which looks pretty ugly. I don't want a built in GPU, the dell made that part very clear to me. I don't want an ugly, boxy, bezel-less chassis of the new models, with no QHD+ display option, which was the perfect resolution for this screen size. Nitpick, but I also don't like that the razer sign on the back doesn't light up. Basically, I want a laptop exactly the same as my old one, but with a quad core inside.

So I can purchase this quad core "v4" model from amazon, with a 3rd party warranty. Or I can purchased a refurbished model directly from razer (shudder). We have a microsoft store as well but I have no idea what their stock is like. Maybe micro center, but their price is high.

TLDR convince me there is a better laptop than the stealth. I don't want to buy another Razer because I want something that I can hold on to for several years without fear of breakdown, but I don't know what else to do. The new macbooks are terrible, and I suspect the lenovo experience will be even worse than dell's. I used to run around with nothing but thinkpads but that was back in the IBM days.

Also convince me that buying a refurb (*shudders*) direct from razerzone.com (*double shudder*) is not akin to taking 1200$ cash and throwing it into the wind.

For extra difficulty points I will be purchasing this laptop with my own money and not getting it through my employer unlike every other laptop I've owned recently. I want my own. So it needs to last with 0 issues for several years. I need something that can run lightworks and garmin virb edit but I don't care about games and only do video stuff once in a while. Budget 1500 or so.