New laptop

Futureproofing a laptop is a losing game, no matter high end you purchase at the time. My suggestion is to save money and stick with a middle of the road laptop and save your money for the next laptop. For $1,500, I don't think you can get the 8800M. 8600GT is pretty much it.

ASUS is pretty hit or miss. Sometimes you get a fantastic piece of work and sometimes you don't. Not to mention their rebate process is sketchy and unreliable as hell. I'll usually pay a little more from another company over ASUS if there's a rebate involved.

Your laptop is going to be hot and that's not going to change. Even with new processors and video cards, they still run pretty warm. I don't see temperature going down for a while. Wear pants and don't place it on your lap. 7200 RPM also makes the laptop warm. My 5400 RPM Western Digital is almost as hot as my processor.

Buy what you want, but don't go too high.

Jam it back in, in the dark.