My laptops a Dell XPS 15 L501x, specced it pretty decent a couple of years back so it's still half decent.
Core i7 Q740
6gb ram
Geforce GT435M 2gb
640gb hdd
1920x1080 screen
Found a 20% discount voucher online which got me Win7 Ultimate & extended warranty while keeping under budget ($1700)
Dells warranty and customer service is good but you're really best off getting an extended warranty. Have had 3 hard drives die on me, the current one they swapped from Western Digital to Toshiba though and it's still going strong. Also had the the power plug break on me a bunch of times, this is due to shitty design as it's only held on by 1 small screw attached to it by a small weak mounting point. Battery only just lasted longer than the 1 year battery warranty too . Apart from that though it's been pretty good. Dell parts are cheap & readily accessible(3rd party) after warranty runs out too.