Like the title says. I do some gaming, usually not FPS, but I do like to be able to play my games at decent video quality. In addition, I do a lot of development on my laptop, and I have some pet CUDA projects that I would like to be able to prototype locally instead of paying for time on AWS instances (which is what I do for large datasets).

Things that matter:

• top of the line CPU (i7-7xxx minimum, ideally i9-84xx)
• discrete NVIDIA graphics - I don't feel like porting a bunch of stuff from CUDA to OpenCL right now.
• 16GB dual channel ram minimum, ideally 32gb dual channel
• minimum 512GB storage, ideally 512GB SSD -- dev tools take up a shitload of space. Something like 256GB SSD disk drive would be ok too, but 512gb SSD is ideal based on my current usage patterns.
• build quality. I can't stand plastic cases that flex when I pick them up (looking at you, HP).
• Thunderbolt -- if I decide to buy an eGPU enclosure and load it up with Teslas or TITANs down the road.
• heat -- if i'm sitting on the couch playing galactic empires i'd rather cook myself

Things that don't matter:

• sound quality
• keyboard lights
• trackpad feel -- all trackpads are pretty much equally detestable
• battery life -- i dont travel with it often, as long as i'm not having to plug back in every hour, it's fine
• size - as long as it's not a 17"
• price (within reason)

So far, I've narrowed it down to the two current razer models (leaning towards the 13"), the gigabyte aero 15, and the MSI P65 Creator

Am I missing anything?