[PLUG] Laptop recomendations

[Alan]

I am looking at (finally) getting another laptop to replace my dead
Vaio.

I have an idea of what I want, but I am interested in the general
opinions out there.

Here are my general thoughts:

IBM - These are long lasting, but I have concerns about the video
chipsets used.  (Intel Extreme Graphics or shared memory ATI in most
cases.)  They also lack the speed of some other vendors, as well as
hyperthread on the P4 chipsets.

Dell - Looks good. They use nVIDIA chipsets for the model I am looking
at, have hyperthread, and have a good warranty.  Not certain if I want
to deal with Dell support.

HP - They have Athlon 64 laptops.  They have very fast Intel laptops. 
The prices are cheap.  Not certain if I trust HP though since the
merger.  The video chipsets are nVIDIA and go up to 128 megs.  (Dell
only goes to 64megs.)  Concerned about quality and support of the
hardware.

Compaq - Same as HP.

Toshiba - Videochips on these such bad. Not even in the running.

Sony - They soak you for everything they can.  I don't really want to do
that again.

Any other comments? Ideas? Rants?

-- 
"Ye have locked yerselves up in cages of fear--and, behold, do ye now
complain that ye lack FREEDOM!"
  - Lord Omar in THE EPISTLE TO THE PARANOIDS Chaper 1 Verse 1