What is the fastest pc laptop that I can buy?

I'm a junior in college and the HP laptop I'd been using crapped out on me. I'm a broadcast media student so I'm constantly doing stuff with photo and video editing so I need something that will be fast. It seems like a macbook pro is the way to go for this, but I just really don't have $1500 to shell out on one. My question is, what is most comparable to a macbook as far as performance goes that's under $1000? One of my friends suggested this new one from HP, but I'm just not sure if I want to go with an HP again. Any and all help would be appreciated!