What would be the best laptop for me?

These are probably overkill for you but if your willing to spend $1500 you might as well get something really special for that price range. Sager is pretty competitive when it comes to product offerings. Quality is on par or better than most other brands as well, be aware than gaming laptops are normally heavier and get less battery life.

http/sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=10

Pick the lower 2 and customize them.
http/sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP8268
NP8268 @ $1469.00

Vibrant 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit Display
Intel HM87 Chipset
i7-4710MQ Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 870M
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 Memory capable
1 1tb Hard Drive
1 120 gig SSD Drive
Full size Backlit Keyboard with numeric pad


NP8278 @ $1,499.

17.3" Full HD (1920 x 1080) LED-Backlit Display with Matte Screen
Intel HM87 Chipset
4th Generation Intel Core i7-4710MQ Processor $35 more to upgrade to I7- 4810MQ
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU with 6GB GDDR5 Memory
8GB DDR3 Memory at 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
1TB (7200rpm) SATA2 HDD
6X Blu-ray Reader,
Full size Backlit Keyboard with numeric pad


http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-152-558
MSI GE Series GE70 Apache Pro-012 Gaming Laptop $1299

Overall not bad but not much different than ASUS ROG G750JM-DS71, Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p, which offer similar specs at around the same price. For these it's about brand preference mostly.
17.3 1920 x 1080 display
ntel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz)
12GB Memory 1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB
Windows 8.1 64-Bit
DVD Super Multi