Laptop recommendations for CoH?

I'm trying to help a friend out with shopping for a mid-range (?) gaming laptop, and not finding a lot of good options. This will be their primary (effectively only) computer; it will mostly be used in "transportable" mode, in different locations around the house and on the road, so battery life isn't that important and weight is less so. They don't currently play any "performance" games other than CoH; this is unlikely to change substantially (not at all interested in RTS or FPS type games; some chance of changing to a different MMORPG in the lifetime of the system).

Requirements:
* Fully legal
* Final cost including shipping, tax, OS, minimum software <= $2,000
* 2+ cores
* Not substantially greater than 17" screen
* Not substantially less than 14" screen
* 1200+ pixels horizontal minimum
* 800+ pixels vertical minimum
* 2+ GB memory included
* Expandable to 4+ GB memory
* Windows 7 x64, Home Premium or better
* Capable of running CoH smoothly (30+ FPS) at laptop's native resolution with medium (pre-Ultra) settings
* Capable of turning on and up all Ultra-mode settings, even if FPS is terrible, for high-quality screenshots if nothing else
* Stable performance for long play sessions, especially including heat.
* 80+ GB hard drive
* Internal 802.11b/g WiFi
* 10/100 Ethernet
* Some form of monitor output
* High-speed USB 2.0 or better, at least 2 ports
* 1 or more headphone outputs (standard 1/8" stereo)

Strong preferences:
* Final cost including shipping, tax, OS, minimum software <= $1,800
* Uses standard hard drive and memory for later upgradability
* 1400+ pixels horizontal minimum
* 900+ pixels vertical minimum
* Approximately 15" screen
* Internal optical drive; CD-RW, DVD-R
* Capable of playing ordinary DVD movies smoothly
* 4 GB memory
* Capable of running CoH smoothly (30+ FPS) at laptop's native resolution with details turned up (pre-ultra high graphics)
* Internal Bluetooth
* Internal 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
* monitor out that is passive-compatible with standard 15-pin Dsub VGA (either an actual VGA port, or a DVI-A or DVI-I port that can be converted with a simple plug)
* monitor out that is passive-compatible with HDMI (either an actual HDMI port, mini-HDMI port, or a DVI-D or DVI-I port that can be converted with a simple plug)
* Availability of solid warranty
* Either a no-dead-pixel/no-hot-pixel clause, or a no-questions return policy, or something equivalent
* 3 or more USB 2.0 ports, placed with at least one with more room around it
* Touchpad
* good range of screen mechanical tilt and viewing angle; will be used on lap desk, table, and various other situations of less than ideal ergonomics
* mostly-full-stroke, full-scale keyboard
* built-in microphone
* microphone input jack, near headphone output for use with y-cabled headset

Would be nice, but not essential:
* optical drive is DVD-RW
* 120+ GB hard drive
* 10/100/1000 Ethernet
* MIMO WiFi-n
* "Complete Care" warranty / insurance option
* (preferably adjustable, or at least toggleable) illuminated keyboard
* charger-output USB port (live power even when off)
* available auto/air 12v power adapter
* true full-stroke keyboard with good feel
* built-in webcam
* normal power adapter does not get alarmingly hot (should not be a fire hazard if placed on fabric)
* some preference for NVIDIA graphics
* some preference for Intel CPU
* Linux compatibility
* Meet the FF-XIV minimum requirements (most of this is a given with the CoH parameters; it does set the minimum graphics to something in the ~300 GFLOP range with 512M memory, desktop GeForce 9600 or better)

Things that might be occasionally useful, but are NOT worth running up the price over in comparison with other features above:
* optical drive is Blu-Ray (almost certainly raises cost more than helpful)
* high-res built-in webcam (most video conferencing is 320x200, and even the high-res Skype maxes out at 640x480 IIRC)
* full 1080p native screen (especially as this increases the graphics workload / reduces the FPS; this is really more of a negative for this system)

An example of an older laptop that meets most of the criteria except for graphics power is the Dell XPS 1530; I've got access to one that I and they have used and been moderately happy with, and I know of other people using them for CoH. They're no longer being made and the graphics card is not strong enough for Ultra Mode, though.

One of the main difficulties is that it seems that the main driver of decent graphics laptops is watching movies; so it tends to push toward large and high-res screens that make keeping reasonable gaming frame rates harder. I've not been finding a lot of options for laptops with good graphics cards in the 15" category, which they originally wanted. They're willing to go up to 17" if necessary to get the graphical power, as noted above, as weight & size aren't primary concerns compared to CoH performance.

My latest seems to fill these specs nicely:
ASUS G51J. i7-q720m, 6 GiB RAM, 500 GiB HD, nVidia GTS 360M, 1920x1080 15.6", upgraded to Blu-ray writer. $1665 from xoticpc.com. See their website for more detailed specs. Also available from 1toppc.com, agearnotebooks.com, and others.

I am very pleased with it.

With that kind of bankroll you certainly can get a highly capable machine. I'd check out Power Notebooks, you'll be able to get precisely what you want there at a good price, and they're completely reputable to deal with.

I'm typing this on a Sager I bought from them, it has a 17" screen, Core2Duo, Nvidia 7950GTX video card and 3 drive bays. I've had the computer for 3 years now and it's been completely bulletproof; it cost me a shade less than $2,000 back then. Obviously this is a dated machine, but it's fully capable of COH Ultra Mode (limited) at around 50fps. The downside to this particular machine is weight... 10lbs of computer and 5lbs of power supply.

They also have smaller, lighter units that'll still pack a nice punch; I have an Asus I bought from them around 2 years ago is in the 6-7lbs range and is likewise COH capable with a 16" screen.

Figure out what you want, choose a chassis and screen then pick CPU, RAM, HD, Vid Card and Operating System... choose XP, Win7 32 bit, Win7 64 bit or no operating system at all. It will come as you request with only the software you request (or none) loaded.

<edit>
At a glance here's something that should work nicely for you

Or this one

Or this one

I got an ASUS G73JH from Best Buy, $1,299 before tax. Built-in screen 1600x900, decent quality display but not great. Card's an ATI 5870 mobility, and it drives a 1920x1200 display with just about everything on full (except ambient occlusion, because of driver issues) at 30-40fps and up. As-shipped, 6GB memory, Windows 7 Home Premium. Haven't tried to load Linux on it yet.

Plusses include:
* Actually runs decently cool, because it has big fan vents, and is also sorta quiet.
* Second drive bay so you could swap OS's around.
* Upgradable to 8GB quite easily.

Cons:
* Recovery DVDs have to be burned by you, and they SUCK -- you can't use them to reload on a smaller drive such as an SSD. (You can use special software, which may cost money, to move the image to an SSD, though.)
* DVD drive a bit annoying.
* No blu-ray in this configuration -- the blu-ray versions cost more.
* No clue about Linux compatibility yet. I've heard it's not great. That may have changed.
* HDMI port rather than DVI port, means extra cable hassle (perhaps trivial)
* RIGHT on the limit of your specified size limits. It's bigger than my 17" macbook pro.

On the other hand, it's $500 cheaper than you were looking at, it plays CoH beautifully, and it's possible to strip most of the provided crapware from it pretty easily. I'm happy with it so far, having had it for, oh, two or three days.

For a variety of reasons, their purchase got delayed. Reopening things now, the leading contender is the Asus G53JW-A1, which seems to meet all the requirements, from the right vendor all the strong preferences, and several of the nice extras including one that wasn't practical last post, a USB 3.0 port. The GTX 460M should provide respectable CoH performance, and at least on paper it looks like the airflow design would allow it to reach its full potential more than a lot of other designs.
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=eV4F8vu0VnKGp0nw

A price point in the $1,400 - $1,500 range is pretty darn good for what it's got IMO. The main problem is that they're in short supply, but they can wait if necessary. Rumor has it there was a small early-November shipment that didn't cover pre-orders most places, there is/will be a small-to-medium mid-late November shipment, and a much larger early-December shipment. Intention is to have it in hand before Christmas holidays, which seems doable

* Anyone with an Asus G53JW-A1 care to comment? Any other comments from close relatives in the product line?

* Recommendation on retailers? At this point the leading contenders are Newegg, BTOTech, and Xoticpc; I've not dealt with the latter two before. BTOTech is interesting because it's got a full configuration menu with some options not available from other sources; Xoticpc is interesting because it's got the no-questions 15-day return policy; both seem to be knowledgeable about gamers.

Edit: BTOTech seems to also have a 15-day return, and Xoticpc seems to actually have some variants in stock again, and more options that I saw before. So a pretty close tossup here.