Need laptop help fast? please help

[tmrx]

I have been looking for a laptop for a long time now and am just getting more and more confused. i do mostly modeling and animation in 3DMax. I also use premier and photoshop. i've been out of the game for about 3yrs now but am getting back into it. i was going to get a machine with the following specs, but i have some questions. My budget for this laptop is between $1800-2300. i'm going to try and get the best, most recent hardware i can in this price range if possible.

 

T7700

4GB RAM

200GB HD

15-17" screen

graphics card?

 

1. does it matter whether i have a desktop processor (Exxx) or a T7xxx series processor in here?

2. does 32bit vs 64 bit make a difference? Vista vs. XP?

3. as far as the video card goes, does it matter between quadro and GeForce? most of the laptops i looked at in my price range had anywhere from a 8400GS 512 turbocached, 8600 GT 512MB, 8700GT 512MB, or 7950GTX. is one of these cards better than the other and should i be concerned with DX10 or OpenGL. i don't want this card to be outdated too fast. i will probably never play games on this machine. the quadro is very expensive to put into a laptop, though. can i get comparable results from the latest 8xxx series cards and does it matter which number or GS vs GT

3. i was looking at the Sager brands (because of the price) on xoticpc or pctorque. is this a legitimate brand? Dell's and HP can get quite expensive for what i want in it, but i don't want junk.

 

any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

thank you.

 

--tmrx