Gaming Laptop for college

I'm going into eng sci next year, and I'm looking to get a new laptop. I don't quite know what I need for eng sci, but i'm guessing it's auto cad, programing and stuff. I do want it for gaming, so i was thinking if it's good enough for gaming it's most likely good enough for first year. thanks!

1_What is your budget? Around 2000USD

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 17"

3_What screen resolution do you want? 1920 x 1200

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
desktop replacement. I don't mind the weight.

5_How much battery life do you need?
the more the better.. no specific battery life required

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
I'm looking to play left for dead, crysis, sim3, and tf2 on high settings

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
music, movies, and and surfing.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
320 GB should be enough.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Don't have any

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Four years

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
I'm really looking for performance so it doesn't turn worthless before the 4 years are over.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I prefer brands that have warranty in canada

13_What country do you live in? I'm currently in Hong Kong for the summer, and I do want to get it here. But I'm going back to Canada. I prefer getting it in Hong Kong, but Canada is okay too.

Many thanks!
Have a great day!~

MSI GT725-212US or GT725-075US

hmmm they seem to be OOS everywhere excepting the 725-074 US which is 1680x1050/4850 mobility 512MB GDDR3 + P8600(2.4GHz) + plain DVD+/-RW and therefore not in your specs, but c. $1400.

IIRC the GT728(or was it 729) should be out soon with 1GB GDDR3 4850 and DDR3 system DRAM although it will cost a little more but otherwise be similar to the Gt725s (same chassis).

Erm, also it'll likely take longer for Canadian models to show up, but there are Canadian GT725 models which may still be available but I don't know where to look offhand. MSI seems to be pretty lenient with their warranty servicing as a guy @ notebookreview bought a GT627 in the US before going back to Russia and was assured that MSI Russia would cover his warranty, but only at the 1y US/Canada level(ROW get 2y %^&#*(I$^! MSI)

Oh yeah if you are going to consider/use linux stay away from ATI GPUs ATM as the catalyst X.org drivers are alpha quality(at best), and the OSS drivers are a ways off.

For nVidia there is the GT627 line, but I don't like the build quality. Lots of keyboard flex(the GT725 build quality is MUCH better and no kb flex). o.w. I'd go 9800M GS or the re-badged GT200M line maybe Sager/Clevo or ASUS(these are built like bricks, as in their 15" is more like a 17" block, the GT725 17" is quite nice(light/relatively thing for a 17" ) but also a little largish still).

I briefly owned an MSI 1651 but had problems, and have now owned a GT725 since march ordered from newegg and like it alot, the 725-074US model.

For best responses, I'd STRONGLY suggest notebookreview.com. BEST(by FAR) notebook site that I've found with good nb reviews and GREAT forums.