Help Choosing a laptop

Ok I am a mass communications student in college and produce a tv show for the college tv station. I have a digital media technology certificate so I am not a total noob but video editing is a deep world and I don't pretend to know it all by any means. I use final cut studio currently in the tv station media labs for my show and projects. ( I want to expand to use more industry titles and not just stay with the familiar final cut) I have adobe cs4 ( master collection) and while it is installed on my home desktop, any sort of rendering in after effects quickly makes it apparent that this computer is incapable of my needs. I am also learning to use blender and have a copy of toon boom studio so I am hoping to get into animation more heavily with the right computer. SO I would say my main programs to be running will be after effects, premiere pro, blender, illustrator, photoshop. I am not a gamer at all, although it seems like gaming computers have the best specs.

Ok so I am going to buy a computer and I need it to be a laptop because a) I will be using it for other student related tasks (i.e. note taking, paper writing, etc.) and b) often times it will be necessary to take it to my student job (lots of free time as I wait for people to check out equipment from the tv station lab), as well as take it to other campus locations and work on the go

MY budget is about $1500. Not a hard budget but can't go crazy here. ( no suggestions over $2000) I am looking for suggestions. Up for anything. I am assuming through cursory examinations through google that an i7 quad core is gonna be a duh. I have had mac envy for the rich kids with macbook pros for a long time and I am familiar with final cut studio a great deal however it seems like my budget is going to go a lot farther in pc world than mac world. Yet I am up for all suggestions.

Obviously lotsa ram, quad core, hdd space (or multiple hd) , nice GPU card, firwire, (and I do love bells and whistles). Huge screen would be conveniant while working, yet inconveniant while walking around campus. (so that could go either way) No preference on brand and such but prefer something reliable to carry me into grad school. I am also interested in external peripheals to make my video editing workflow efficient (external drives, capture cards, etc.) that any one thinks are must haves or something. Until now I have always used school equipment and I am ready to get setup on my own. So if its laptop "a" with external thingy "b" or some configuration like that you suggest I am up for it!

Beyond that I am confused. Here are links to couple of models I have been eyeing:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157043 Not the best reviews but affordable from my local staples(1,000)

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jha2-order-p-2761.html I think this is impressive. Duel HDDSs, 8gb ram, nice attractive deign, apparantly great graphics gpu....I guess this puppy is in the lead so far

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2 [...] oid=460942 interesting laptop and like the included ssd but a little 2 expensive and 18" screen...this is one big "laptop" but seems powerful

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...co=MTM3NDcyODk ok so this one comes in about right with price and I have had mac envy forever but only 2 cores? only 4gb of ram? only 5400rpm hd thats only 250gb? It seems hard to justify the money when you see the specs of other computers in the pc world


So I am up for any suggestions, any brands, any components I must include in my hunt (i.e. certain video card or something) custom or namebrand, etc. I have a couple of weeks to shop so i want to be sure I get THE ONE (and I have no plans to upgrade to cs5 any time btw so something meshing nicely with cs4 after effects and premiere pro but capable of animation as well)


Thanks !!!!!

If you can afford it, I'd go all out with the Asus. They are reliable machines, i.e. the tend to last awhile, which in turn means that you will get your money's worth in the long run. Plus, you are getting some major processing power/gpu power, which isn't a bad thing at all.