Help with choosing a laptop

You might wanna consider Lenovo, has been a pretty big laptop brand in the past year or so.

1. What exactly are you planning on doing with your laptop? Just regular stuff and NBA/Dota2?
2. Are you planning on traveling/walking a lot with your laptop?
3. What is the smallest screen size that you're willing to deal with?
4. Any preference on OS?
5. Are there any specific ports that you must have?

you better go for macbook,unless the screen size not a problem for you.

1. The games that you've listed are actually quite demanding, so I'm not sure how well a macbook can handle it vs a laptop with dedicated GPU, such as that ASUS ROG laptop
2. According to your plan of traveling or taking it to presentation, I personally think a laptop as huge as ASUS ROG will be a big problem.
3. I think I will be suggesting some 13' ultrabook since they are the bomb
4. If the laptops that I'm going to suggest only offers 1 USB 3.0 or something. I will also attach a USB hub with it.
5. Projectors use either VGA or HDMI (I rarely see DVI), good thing about Windows' laptop is that you don't have to carry an adapter
6. Longevity relates with brand of the laptop, the warranty from the manufacturer (or 3rd party warranty), how you treat it, and I think the bigger the laptop the easier it is to break

Best gaming laptops, that's still light weight-ish:
Aorus X7: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-233-033 this one just got released to the market for less than a week, so it has been sold out, but it's SLI and super light weight/cool
Razer Blade: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-326-009&Tpk=34-326-009 GTX 765M, 4lbs, let me be clear. It is 4 LBS, and still contains very powerful spec.

Mid price range gaming laptops, also light weight:
Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/ very affordable, and still has a discrete GPU, FHD display, 6 lbs
ASUS N550JV http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231114 again, affordable, 5.4lbs

Ultrabook that consists of Intel HD graphics (I think they'll be able to play those demanding games, but in low settings)
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/x-series/x1-carbon/ the spec says it all.
ASUS Zenbook UX301LA http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231481 amazing

Top mainstream grade laptop:
Lenovo IdeaPad U530 http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/u-series/u530-touch/
Lenovo IdeaPad Z410 http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/z-series/z410/

Sorry if this list is overwhelming, these are just some suggestions. Tell me which one you like and what you don't like so we can narrow it down.

I didn't pick anything heavy as you can see, cuz I personally think that as technology moves forward I don't see a reason for people to carry heavy laptop unless you're using it to replace a desktop.
I didn't pick any Apple products cuz I'm pretty sure we all know what is inside so we'll just compare the best Windows laptop that you pick and compare that to Macbook at the end.

Good luck and post back if you have questions.

Yes, you will be able to do that. However, the map load time might be very slow depending on your USB connection and quality of the enclosure.

According to
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rgL9dW7mw

There's a lot of comparison, you'll get it if you know what he is talking about. If you don't here is a summary.
GT 650M outperforms Iris Pro in gaming
Iris Pro performs better than GT 650M when doing graphic processes that's not game
i7 Ivy Bridge performs similar to i7 Crystalwell
Having SSD will help in load time/read/write by a lot

Therefore, if you care about gaming, then go with the one with GT 650M. If you do more work like editing or anything other than gaming as your main focus, then go with Iris Pro.
As for that 13.3", You won't feel much of a difference when comparing that to i7 in regular usage. However, it comes with Iris Pro so you know the trade off. Basically smaller screen, cheaper is what you're comparing.

Yea if you're gonna game then go with that one. However, don't expect much fps or settings when gaming on 650m since it's a little old and a laptop grade GPU.
I don't think there's an different cooling design for non-retina version throughout their generations
Anyways, I don't think Macbook has bottom intake after googling macbook intake, but cooling pad might still help just like how if you blow a hairdryer to your PC case (even if there's no intake, the case still warms up). Therefore, a cooling pad will help, just not as much.
This will help you https/discussions.apple.com/thread/4218055
I don't have a favorite or recommendation, I would just go with ratings at this point.
Someone in that link suggested
http/www.amazon.com/ThermaPAK-HS15A-HeatShift-Laptop-Laptops/dp/B001CBFTFM/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=N97NI7Y539NB&coliid=I2D2FK06AIE2CU
or you can try newegg
http/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007639%20600028834%204093&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&Order=REVIEWS&PageSize=20

Hope it helps

First I would like to suggest the Lenovo Y510p for it being cheaper and lighter. (There's SLI options in the second page)(I can tell you more about this if you're interested)
http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

Second I'll talk about your question. Hardware failure is really unpredictable if going for the well known brands such as ASUS, Lenovo. It's kinda like asking when is the next time that I'm gonna trip on the street, you don't want it to happen, but it's likely to happen sometime in your life. Similar to that, you don't know when the hardware is going to break, but it's going to happen sometime. However, in both situation you do have the ability to be more careful with your steps and your care of the laptop. In other words, as long as you're going with reputable brand and model of laptop (cuz sometimes they make mistake and manufacturer one with flaws in it, just read the reviews and you will find those) you should feel confident in the product. I've heard stories about ASUS laptop having issue within 2 months of usage, and stories about never having issues in 6 years. It really depends on luck and care as long as they are Reputable Brand and Model of laptop.
Here is an article if you want some evidence (do note that the stat is outdated and was only recorded by a system warranty company and not the retailer or the manufacturer)
http/lifehacker.com/computer-manufacturers-ranked-how-to-pick-a-laptop-tha-1467145338

Hardware problem within laptop usually causes by damaging (as you can probably imagine how many cracked ones there are), after that I would say the internal dust stocking up causes overheat and short components. In addition, it doesn't has to do with dust for overheat, people like to cover up the air intake for laptops with their laps or table and causing the laptop to overheat really quickly, another reason for me to suggest laptop cooling pad.

Thank you for visiting us
Hope you have fun with the laptop.

It better be free, or you can do it yourself. It's really easy, only takes 2 minutes. This video shows you how many HDD cage and how to swap it.
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U69nzbC62M