I've always been more of a software man than hardware and even then my
hardware knowledge is out of date.

At present exchange rates I think $1,999 would be approximately £1000.
I can say this with a great deal of confidence. Whatever you spend on a
laptop could easily be invested to build you a pc of almost twice the
comparable performance.

For that (in this country for sure) you could build an absolute beast.

Keep in mind, Half-life2 is not an especially demanding game any more.
Certainly not by current standards. If you're building a gaming machine
and you don't plan on doing LAN gaming (which makes laptops very
attractive) then I would strongly urge you to invest in a desktop gaming
rig.

I'll leave the hardware fella's here who, spend money more often than me
on PC's to tell you what they think is best to buy.

I'm not familiar with American PC stores but there are a few European
sites which let you pick and choose what goes into your PC and give you
an excellent idea of what you're getting. The advantage to that is you
can go away and get a spec. Then bring it back here and post it.

I'm sure the wise heads will yay and nay the spec until you're satisfied.

That's what I would do.

Have fun and and don't leap until you're 100% sure.

I would use the money to build a desktop,  You will end up with a much
better machine with much less cost.

For Vista I'd advise 2 gigs system ram.  You may be able to upgrade that
instantly with another SODIMM for a moderate price.
McG.

I would get 2 gigs of ram other than that looks like a pretty good computer

Stay clear of Vista if you can. It's been designed in consultation with the
hardware manufacturers to use more system resources and thus sell more gear.

XP will do just fine.

I personally have no need for laptops but a lot of people ask me for
help buying one (IT dept Alpha geek). Most people that ask me about
buying a laptop want one just because.. not that they actually have work
to be done elsewhere.

If you *need* portable processing then by all means get a laptop. If you
want a gaming PC and are thinking about a laptop then that's not right.
Laptops cost twice as much for similar performance of a desktop and are
have almost zero upgradeablity.

That said there are some companies making "Gamer" laptops but you will
pay for them.