For the best bang for the buck, with some durability: Dell Inspiron's.
For something more longer lasting: IBM ThinkPads
Something in between?: Toshiba, but they can seem to be pricey.
As far as Acer and HP, i don't prefer those, only because i've had to fix those more often than the ones i mentioned above. And of those fixes, most were not of end-user causes.
I definitely do not even consider Sony's... they might be cool-looking with some nice features, but you get the point here. Those cool features cover-up everything else that the Sony Laptop VAIO's lack.
