Looking for a laptop, please help.

1_What is your budget?
~$1000 US

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
~17in - the bigger the better

3_What screen resolution do you want?
What's good for a sharp looking 17in screen? 1080p or is there something better? I have an ultrasharp 20" screen (1680x1050) at home, so anything too cheap looking will really be glaring.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement. I care less about mobility, and more about raw power. Seeing my cursor change from the arrow pointer to the hourglass and the computer lagging really makes me mad - so yeah, I'm gonna need a decent processor and at least 4GB of DDR2 ram.

5_How much battery life do you need?
The longer the better, I'm thinking at least 4hrs.

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)?
Yeah, I'd like to play games. I'm probably looking at perhaps Diablo 3 when it releases. Also Age of Empires 3, Civilization 4, Chessmaster - nothing too crazy. I'll play the fps at home.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
Surfing the web; playing music; watching movies; work with MS Office apps; Photoshop; Rosetta Stone; burning DVDs; and other stuff a grad student would need.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
The more the better, naturally. However, I'd prefer a faster HDD over sheer size. At least 7200rpm; and at least 300GB.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Anywhere that's a trusted site. I was looking at the HP site.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
2-4 years.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
I want a black one or very dark gray. No childish looking designs like some of the new HPs - although I'd be willing to ignore them if the price is right for good specs.
Windows Vista x64 (with options to upgrade to Win7).
Full sized keyboard would be nice; don't really care about a numpad though.
e-SATA for my external HDD.

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 generally like HPs - is it still considered a good brand? NO MACS and NO DELL. I'm neutral to most other brands, although the Sonys have always been overpriced.

13_What country do you live in?
Los Angeles, USA.




Thanks in advance for the help!