A few things to consider:
1. are you EVER going to move it around regularly.
2. What level of tech support do you want after the purchase?
3. What level of performance do you expect?
4. Does screen resolution matter?
I went for a Gateway p-172x fx, and before you curl away at gateway, they buy their performance P series from Clevo.. who builds for Sager among others.
2 grand, 8800gts-m 512, 2.4ghz core 2 duo, 4 gigs ram, 1080p screen.. etc.
It's great but it's fucking HEAVY (10 lbs + 3.5 lbs. power brick), and after you pay that much for a laptop you're seriously going to have to baby it.. not take it everywhere, the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Keep that in mind.
Gateway offers a $150 3 year war.. good value.
Macbook, sure, but you will be limited in graphics card choices.. at 2 grand though it can be a good buy especially if you want osx.
Dell = kinda too expensive for performance, usually wayyy marked up for their xps line. GREAT customer support, still want to buy a war. and that's gonna cooost.
HP has some good deals, ill link a whole bunch of sub-2000 laptops.. but at the end of a whole lot of researching.. gateway's p series really delivers cost wise.
Just be honest with yourself, a 17" gaming laptop is not a laptop.. it's a lazy-mans lan party box.
