Help with choosing a laptop

There are a bunch of threads like this one floating around but after several hours of reading through bits and pieces from all over the web I thought I'd make a post and hope for some help

Moving right along and answering the FAQ questions..

1_What is your budget?
I'd prefer under $2000 total cost.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I'd like a 17+" screen, but that may not be possible under the budget with the other desired features

3_What screen resolution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/display_resolution do you want?
I'm not really certain.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deskt [...] t_computer laptop?
Portable.

5_How much battery life http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery do you need?
Only a few hours under easy use. For games I'll be able to find a plug most likely

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)?
Currently I'd like to run Oblivion at its maximum settings. I assume that will allow the laptop to at least be competent at games for awhile.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_editing , surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
All of that but I assume that being able to play games well will cover most of that by itself.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
I have a 500GB external hard drive so the drive in the laptop doesn't have to be huge. It looks like 160GB is pretty standard, although I'm not sure if it is preferable to have a 5400 or 7200 rpm hard drive when thinking of heat and power use.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
I've been to a bunch of sites but I dont have any preference.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
For as long as it remains viable to use. I'd hope for 4 years, though that is likely pushing it.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
I'd like it to look nice and I dont care about weight. I've been looking for around 4 gigs of ddr3 ram and some decent video cards but the first looks to be almost non-existent for laptops and for the second I've gotten lost in the piles of reading.

I did look at this site (http://www.killernotebooks.com/executioner_mx/executionermx_order_page.html) and it has pretty much what I want but with some extras I dont really need and a higher price tag than I would prefer.

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'd prefer amd but from what I've read on this site it isnt the way to go for gaming laptops.

13_What country do you live in?
USA


I hope this helps. Any information would be helpful. At this point I've gotten very frustrated with the sheer amount of searching and cross collating with little success.