Okay I'm going to chime in here on this one. I paid $800 dollars for a 17" Asus laptop. Was looking for a Gaming Laptop at the time. It is only slightly less powerful than the mighty Alienware laptop of the time. Asus, Abit, and Acer, produce most of the motherboards used in the Name brand computers anymore and if you buy one of the "off" brand computers you get more bang for the buck. Its a bit of a hike, but if you have to be hands on to buy, there is a MicroCenter in Rockville. They have the best selection of computer ware around the DC area that I know of. Otherwise check them out online, or try any of the other online computer stores; Neweggg, Tigerdirect, if you are a little braver Pricewatch.
GWguy is correct on 2 counts, connect it to your TV through HDMI, and an SSD drive will increase your performance noticeably, both boot time and in normal operation of most "power software" (Games, graphic editors, media apps).
M2C