Just about every laptop you have same with some company's name on it was in fact not made by the company on the label. The vast majority of laptops on the market (94% in 2011) are manufactured by a small handful of Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturers (ODM), although their production bases are located mostly in mainland China.
Major relationships include:
Quanta sells to (among others) HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, Fujitsu and NEC
Compal sells to (among others) Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP/Compaq
Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP
Inventec sells to Toshiba, HP and Lenovo
Pegatron sells to Asus, Toshiba, Apple, Dell and Acer
Foxconn sells to Asus, Dell, HP and Apple
Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP
The "boutique" laptop phenomenon began with Alienware and those were made by Clevo (until Dell bought Alienware) and Clevo still provides the chassis and parts for FalconNorthwestVoodooPC, WindowPC, Sager and many other brands you might recognize.
http/forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html
I buy mine from LPC Digital and have ach one custom amde to my user's specifications. here's what I'd suggest for you
Clevo WT350EQ $1,029 before discounts
http/www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np6350-features.html
Discount Link -
http/www.lpc-digital.com/notebook-review-members-military-and-student-discounts.html
15.6" Full HD 1920 x 1080 LED-Backlit Display
NVIDIA® GeForce GTX 660M with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory
Intel Core i5-3230M Processor
Intel HM77 Express Chipset
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB
750GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Removable 8 cell smart Lithium-Ion battery pack 76.96Wh
FREE UPS Ground Delivery
High Definition audio interface
S/PDIF Digital output
1 Built-in Microphone
2 Built-in Speakers made by Onkyo
THX TruStudio Pro Sound System
1 HDMI 1.4a output Port
1 CRT output Port
2 USB 3.0 Ports
1 USB 2.0 Ports
1 eSATA Port (USB 3.0 Combo)
1 Headphone Jack
1 Microphone Jack
1 S/PDIF output Jack
1 RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
Built-in Gigabit Ethernet LAN
Integrated 802.11 b/g/n wireless LAN + Bluetooth™ V3.0 + HS Combo half mini card module
9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC)
1 MiniCard Slot for WLAN module
Kensington® Lock
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
5.95 Lbs with Battery Pack
Upgrade to Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor and / or 16 GB memory are $70 each
Recommended at sightly higher budget
At $1,172 (before discounts) , you get a significant upgrade with the Clevo 151EM
http/www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np9130.html
Includes:
15.6” Full HD 16:9 LED-Backlit MATTE Ultra Clear
Intel Core i7-3630QM Processor
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 670MX 3GB GDDR5 Memory - FREE Upgrade Special!