I bought an HP dv6000 about a year and a half ago, and havn't had any issues since. I used to run some games on it, Call of Duty mostly, and it handled that just fine. Now it's used as my personal computer and also my recording software (ProTools HD) is loaded onto it, and it runs smooth as silk.

Have you considered a Macbook Pro? A friend of mine just picked one up - they're sick!