Thanks everyone! This post has been very informative. I'm glad some of you get why I prefer to have a laptop over a desktop. I really don't mind having to buy a new laptop every other year in exchange for the freedom to move about.
Asus looks to be the path but for being so ROG, why the hell don't they offer the ability to build it. I'm a BestBuy/Frys kinda guy, but it looks like I'll be venturing out of my comfort zone.
Also, it seems as though the primary component is the vid card. Basically between NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M and AMD® Radeon HD 6990M, who wins?
And, is there that huge of a diff between either of those and a NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 560M?
Thanks again for all the feedback and advice.