Hehe... the first thing I thought about when reading the thread title was that same Anandtech review (they seemed somewhat enthused, and Anandtech is about the only site I trust reviews from nowadays -- [H] can take those 'real-world benchmarks' and shove them... well, anyways).
I got to play around with a Toshiba gaming laptop a few months back, and was quite impressed (don't recall the model, but it was a beast, and they paid $2000 (MSRP) for it). It was extremely heavy duty, and very nicely laid out.
My gf has an Dell inspiron 17", built with gaming in mind, which made a decent substitution for little more than $1k. It's a bit 'cheap' feeling though.. a bit of flex in the plastic, and the lcd hinge isn't quite so tight.
My advice... specs are specs, so the discerning factor is build quality. If at all possible, go to a electronics store and feel them out.
Edit: Btw... are you looking for a 15.4" or 17" laptop? You'd have to go with a 17" if you expect it to be any type of 'desktop replacement', but it's not exactly easy lugging a big notebook like that around campus I'm sure, not to mention you'd be lucky to make it through a full day of classes without having to hunt down a power outlet.
Re-edit: Also, never pay for memory or hdd upgrades... you can pay the manufacturer $100 for an extra gig of ram, or buy 2x2gb yourself for around $60-80 (and sell the old sticks, if you want). Or, you can spend an extra $150 to turn that 80gb 5400rpm drive into a 120gb 7200rpm drive, or you can buy a 250gb 7200rpm drive on sale for around $110-125. Even upgrading from a combo drive to a dvdrw drive for 40bux -- you can buy you're own slim dvd burner for 40bux, and have the chance to pick it out yourself. Simply put, the only good upgrade is a free upgrade...
