I plan to shop with GenTechPC to build an MSI GE60/650M, configuring with a 60GB mSATA + a cheapy 640GB HDD (it only costs $25 more than the "no HDD" option) though I'm not sure if I should pay the extra $15 for "no bloatware" - I think I can remove these things myself but I know some hardware like antivirus trials are an absolute PITA to remove.
GenTechPC and xoticPC allow you to downgrade to the Sandy Bridge CPU's which I highly recommend to get the most out of your money, because you save $80 that way and only lose 10% CPU performance at worst. The HD 3000 downgrade doesn't matter obviously thanks to the GT 650M.
As far as the "$200 laptops" go, I bought an EeePC a couple Winters ago for 250€ and it works fine for basic things and 10-year old games. But now I have gotten spoiled by modern games and want to do some StarCraft 2 at 1080p and maybe some WarHammer and whatever other RTS games happen to spark my interest.
I highly recommend a laptop cooler, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002MU1ZRS. The MSI GE60 gets really hot and this laptop cooler will bring temps down in order to prevent your laptop from being throttled. I suppose the mat will give it a lot of overclocking headroom as well, but that's going to achieve more modest improvents for me compared to being 20x better than my Intel GMA 3150 + 20x better than my Atom N450.
