Laptop advice

Not really a build but looking for some advice on a laptop if anyone can give some help and point me in the right direction.

Context: Moving to a new house and having to leave a nice desktop PC behind... Will be bringing a headless server I use now for NAS, media server, remote access to the home network (SSH, vnc, etc) and some lenghty stuff as video enconding when not in an hurry

I need to get a new primary computer and won´t have space for a desktop so a laptop will obviously be my choice. I´m aiming for a 17'' screen and using a secondary monitor when I really need the screen realstate to get work done. I´m used to a dual-monitor setup on my desktop and it´s hard to give that up.

Looking for perfomance close to a desktop, sacrificing only the GPU since I haven´t been much of a gamer lately. My main focus is:

  • hard disk speed (maybe SSD for OS + HDD for some storage)
  • cpu/ram for databases (local MySQL / MS access), some video enconding (nothing on a professional level, just reencodings) and being able to still use the pc for other random stuff while doing cpu intensive tasks
  • Build quality of the laptop is also a main thing

I´ve been looking at the HP Envy lineup and some builds from Asus. Anyone that got a laptop recently and want to give some advice please?

Thanks in advanced for any replies

 

What's your budget?

Between 1000€-1500€ would be within my budget if it was a really good substitute for a desktop :)

why are you leaving the computer behind, is it bolted to the floor, sereously, TVs are heavier than your computer

also if you really have to leave it here what you do, spend 400-500~ on a laptop and the 1100-1000~ on a mini ITX PC you'll be much happier I swear