Originally Posted by Lasereth

Forget the battery life idea. Even with an extended battery your batlife is gonna suck ass no matter which brand you buy.

I'd get a Dell with a Core 2 Duo and a REALLY nice graphics card (REALLY nice for laptop is only "decent" for desktop) with 1 GB of ram. Should be able to get it for under $2k. BTW big laptop screens always seem like a good idea until it won't fit into your backpack or carrier and then you hate it. I'd get an average, maybe even below average sized screen.