I use http://forums.overclockers.com.au/ heaps for discussing hardware.

They have a great recommended specs wiki which is kept updated by lots of people so it’s a really good source for what’s the “best bang for buck”

http://www.overclockers.com.au/wiki/Gaming_Machine

I personally have something similar to the $1250 Intel machine on this page. More RAM and more hard disks and different mobo but similar. Actually the only things the same are the CPU, type of RAM and the Case but you get my drift. It’s a good starting point.

The best bang for buck Gaming Laptop at the moment is the Dell XPS 1730.

I bought one but returned it – the screen utterly sucked

http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1730?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs

It’s a Samsung panel with shitloads of light bleed – sucked

In US and Europe they get an LG or Sharp panel and they are much better. As far as I know this hasn’t been solved.

For gaming notebook you must get 17inch panel. Otherwise you will curse later.

The 8600M GT which is the most common “gaming” video card sucks but it is affordable.

When I have a bit of money soon I will be looking at getting something like this:

http://p4laptops.com.au/order-m57ru-special.htm

It has a mobile 8800M GTX which is a very good card.

When the mobile 9600M GT comes out that will be very good too.

I currently prefer Nvidia (8 series) and Intel (Core 2 Duo and Quad series) over ATI and AMD. They are just better at the moment IMO. I just go with the “best bang for buck” at the time. At the moment Nvidia and Intel have the best chips. When that changes I will change my preferences. The new 4xxx series from Ati and the new GTX 2xx series from Nvidia  due out soon should change things again.

I use the forums at NotebookReview a lot as well for my notebook purchases – that thread shows some research into my next gaming notebook purchase and my current notebook (an ASUS F3Jm)

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=197647

Here is a pic of my desk with the XPS 1730

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=173512&page=33

This is the BEST mobile video card list on the net.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=260403

This is also useful.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html