Purchasing advice, please?

I've been asking for the same advice for a while now at a bunch of different notebook/mobile computing forums, and I'm hoping this time might be different. (Usually I get referred to HP/Dell models after expressly stating that I don't trust HP tech support or Dell build quality, or I've been referred to IBM models that don't even have dedicated graphics cards.) I’ve been doing extensive searches for a laptop to replace my failing and woefully inadequate Thinkpad for some time now and haven't had much luck on my own. I’m looking to spend something around $2,000, but can go a good bit higher. I need this laptop to run Maya, 3DS Max, Premiere, Photoshop, etc, etc, and last for the next three years at least, with a good warranty for those years. I’m majoring in “electronic entertainment media”, and will also need to be conducting extensive “research” of the latest video gaming products.

I’d very much like a Core 2 Duo at 2.0 Ghz, an 80 GB 7,200 rpm HD, 2 GB of RAM, nVidia dedicated graphics, and a full-sized keyboard (I miss my numberpad dearly). I'm flexible on processor speed and HD space, but not on the amount of RAM, the rpms on the HD, or the nVidia graphics (I'm kind of an nVidia fanboy - I've never had good luck with ATI) I don’t want Vista forced on me until all of the bugs are worked out, and would prefer to stick with XP. I think that my biggest problem is that the only places I can find specs like that being offered are through boutique manufacturers, and I don’t know which ones I can trust for warranty support.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance.

What size screen are you looking at? I'm assuming probably 17" since you want a full keyboard with num-pad, I don't think you'll find a 15.4" model with that, only 17"+.

take a look at some asus models, you get everything you want except for the number pad

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Store_Code=GPS&Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Notebook

Gentechpc is a good seller, though there are many more if you search for them (you may have one in your area that will let you see the notebooks before you buy)

Models to look at G1s, Z84JP, 8AJs, C90s, W7J

I would defenately considering getting a larger HD (especially for your needs), and Vista has the bugs worked out now. As far as I know everyone pretty much agrees, I'm running the latest version of 32 bit Vista now and have had no trouble with my home-brew PC (which I did not check any of my parts for compatability).

Anyway I am used to suggesting Sager notebook but I feel I am a bit behind on notebooks as of now. Anyway I do believe however that Dell's laptops have a better build quality than you think, although the customer support will never be that great (I'm used to dealing with them, I have had no trouble and it usually works out fine but that is also on behalf of a corporation). The word buzzing around now seems to be "Clevo" but I don't have any first hand experience with them. I do know that I have seen some of the Alienware laptops that were OEM from Clevo (there's this circle above the monitor on all Clevo products) and the laptop seemed very solid in design, above standard cooling for a laptop defenately.

Look for an ASUS laptop like mitcity22 suggested. check out rjtech.com for more ASUS laptops.

I have been looking more at 17" screens than anything else - though I could be quite happy with a 15" one on account of how much easier it would be to lug around all the time. As far as the HD goes, I don't really need a bigger one because I only ever really work on one or two projects at a time - I have a 300 GB external drive I offload them to when they're finished or not being worked on.

I'll be looking a lot more into ASUS models - I've already been looking a lot at Clevo models, specifically the M570U - I'd probably have gotten that one already if it wasn't pushing my budget so far (but I'm betting that a lot of that is the GeForce Go 7950 GTX that all of the resellers I've found are putting on that machine).