Considering the purchase of a notebook -

Question, gentlemen and fair traps of 4chon!
On account of the conclusion of another year of school,
I am considering the purchase of a notebook.
Please recommend brands and minimum system requirements.

Acer is pretty good (any mobile processor)
Stay away from Sony (overheating issues)
Alienware is overpriced (common knowledge)
IBM if you want trackpoint (HP's is the suck)
Dell if you can't troubleshoot for yourself