Whatever you get, just get something with a good Warranty.

Since we're on thinkpads, look whats on the front page of Slickdeals today:

Lenovo has a great deal on ThinkPad L412 Laptop. After applying coupon code USETHINKPLUS1028 and following steps below, price drops to $500 and free shipping. Thanks congrenmao

Click here and login
Click on notebooks -->Thinkpads--> L Series --> L412 --> ThinkPad L412 with discrete graphics
Select Intel Core i5-460M Processor -$47.50
Upgrade to 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz -$4.75
Downgrade to ThinkPad PC DOS License - $165.30
Add to cart and apply code USETHINKPLUS1028 to drop price to $500.17
Specs:
Intel Core i5-460M Processor
4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM
160 GB Hard Drive8X DVDRW
14.0" HD LCD
Mobile Intel HM55 Express Chipset w/ Discrete Graphics
ThinkPad bgn WiFi
4 cell Battery
ThinkPad PC DOS License

That my friend is a great deal. I have an ideapad which aren't as great as thinkpads, but it's been a champ. And it's also cool because it's kind of retro in a way (PC DOS?). Solid performance, good sized screen, and not a crazy graphics card that will eat your battery. This is a deal.

my friends old laptop did the same thing, except he used a wire silverware container of some kind, and when it really over heated it wasnt uncommon for him to throw it in the freezer

IBM Thinkpads are solid computers, we still have a few T22s in use at the college I work at! and that's at a college, if you're a careful owner who looks after it, they could probably last forever*!

*this is in no way a guarantee

I'd go for a used IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad (Business Series T-- or X--). Lightweight, rocksolid and good supply of spare parts.

Sony is like the Apple of windows computers, but not as good. you pay more for some kind of "luxury item", but they don't have as good build quality as apple, if you're considering a vaio just get an apple and install windows on it, because they're just silly.

if you want windows, I would say buy Asus, Acer or get something from Ibuypower (dot) com if you need gaming.

I've messed with a handful of fucky HPs in my day.  Never met one that I really liked.  Dells be fairly nice and I've had really good luck with Acers... except the most recent one I got that had a fuckt hard disk out of the box.

My Dell has been a beast and HP is sweet. I never heard Sony's lasting that long tho.

If your not gonna play games, then buy a smaller computer with good battery life, I guess.

Opinions on HP vs Sony vs Dell in terms of general reliability? And any other brands I should think about?

If you graphics card is getting nuked then the guys over there in the repair shop didn't do the right thing. You didn't need a mobo replacement- you probably only needed a thermal rework. I have done it for people before- clean out the ducting and the sludge that gets into the cooling fins, upgrade the heat sync goop, clean the living daylights out of everything. I bet they just swapped the damaged GPU and left the thermal stuff alone, leading to its untimely demise.

When it was still under warranty, my laptop had trouble with the graphics card overheating. After a very long and painful technical support procedure, I managed to get them to replace the motherboard. I started using a cooling pad with fans like e.s.c. showed above, and it seemed to help. It broke though, so I started using a metal wire oven rack, which was smaller and seemed to work just as well. Graphics card seems to have finally died again though, despite my cooling efforts.

yep, its got intakes on the rear, the fans blow extra cool air into those bottom intakes...keep shit running nice

grab one of these for $15, powered by USB, problem solved