Gaming laptop

Greetings, all. I'm looking to buy a decent gaming laptop for around $3,500 (CAD). More than two weeks ago I placed an order with Dell for an Alienware M17X with the following specs:

Intel Core i7 720QM 1.6GHz-2.8 GHz (in Turbo Mode)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz
17-inch WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 RGB LED (1200p)
Dual 1GB ATI Radeon Mobility HD 4870 in CrossfireX
500GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD
8X DVD+/-RW DL,QS,CNB

Admittedly, this machine was closer to $4,000.

I've since cancelled the order for various reasons -- one of which the length of time it was taking them to put the thing together. They estimated about a month.

So, I'm back to the drawing board.

I've tried the Toshiba Qosmio, but the keyboard layout is just different enough to mess me up -- if that was the only machine I'd be using, I could get used to it. But I have a standard keyboard on my desktop. So, I took that back.

Can anyone make any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!