Regarding just needing a new laptop situation, I feel ya. I'm in a similar boat, been looking and watching Asus tuf a15 or a17 on Amazon. I've seen the a15 dip to $700usd and mostly hover around $859.
I'm realizing for myself that my new work horse is a laptop, which is connected to a 4k screen and I have it in portrait mode for viewing trading view. It has a "dedicated" Nvidia card but it's an older model and a Dell thin Ultrabook so it's not extremely powerful. Don't get me wrong, it's a great machine and 10 years ago when I was in Uni, it served me well! I guess my power-user needs have out grown my use. Since I turned my PC into a mining rig, I haven't been able to work in Unity to work on my game ideas. Unity really requires a lot too.

I'm happy for you that you were able to get a replacement for your needs and even more amazing that the community donated that much to you!❤️ 💯
Have a great day