I took the easy but not best route with my notebook. I got it from a CompUSA retail store off the shelf. It was on special though. The original price was around $1600 US, but I paid $1200 US. It is more meant for entertainment as it is called a "HP Pavilion Entertainment PC", but it isn't that bad for the price, especially from retail. I got it in February right after Vista came out for retail. The specs are below.
Core 2 Duo 1.6Ghz
2Gig Ram(Dual Channel, though probably not the highest quality)
NVidia 7600GO, not GT, but GO, so don't know exactly where it stands, but it works for everything I've wanted so far.

It is a 17inch widescreen with an onboard 10-key, which I require bucause I like it, and because Blender uses it as well.

I just looked at the specs from newegg linked to above to the Asus F3, and it isn't that bad, especially for barely over $1000 US. I think I got a better deal because I paid a couple hundred bucks more for double the RAM, and I like Intels better than AMDs for some reason, though I don't know what it is. I guess it's fanboyism because I don't truly believe in too much difference. Anyway, deals can be found on speedy laptops, but you probably will have to pay more than $1000 US, as others have said.

I just got a new MacBook Pro and I'll say, these suckers are solid. My PC tower is a 2.8Ghz Pentium D with 2GB of RAM and an X800XL and this thing just blows it away. I have 2GB of RAM in it with a 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo, but the great part is the nVidia 8600m. DirectX 10 compatible graphics card. This thing is a beast for how thin it is. And it doesn't seem to run that hot either. If you have an educational discount you can snag the one I got for $1800. Otherwise I think they start at $2000.

This is something I've been thinking about lately too. The one I almost just bought right before seeing this thread has a GeForce 8600M GT card. I've looked around and seen it's pretty decent. Anyone have any input on it?