Notebook suggestions

Je comes to this forum for opinions.

I have a DELL XPS M1710 but it's past the three-year-and-a-half mark since I bought it (around 4 years and a half or almost five since it came out!!) and it is starting to show it's age, it's considerably slower than it was before and I had to change a busted HDD and two ram sticks because it got a nasty hit to the side.

It still is good, and it's doing the job perfectly for what I'm asking but when S2TW comes out I won't even be able to run it on minimum. Heck, I can't even run FIFA 11 demo without lag on more than 800x600! Even M2TW has a problem, I cannot run it on maximum even if the notebook was released at the same time.

Now, I need a really powerful notebook that can last 3-4-5 years without no problem. At least 17" inch screen and with upgrade compatibility.

Any suggestions?

Your best bet is Dell XPS again... as they allow some customisation of purchase. Upgrading Dell computers is a pain though. And I'd advise against a 17" screen as notebook GPUs are optimised for 15" screens. You can get a fairly decent Dell XPS for about US$1,200-US$1,400 that will run most modern games admirably, but the graphics cards are all mid-range at best so won't have the longest service life. I believe they have 15.2" screens.