What brands would you recommend?What brands should i steer clear of? The one im looking at now is a Sony Vaio. Its seems to be very good value considering the specifications.
Sony Vaio sucks...dont get that.
Get a Toshiba. Haven't had problems with it.
HP FTW. Seriously my laptop is HP, it's quality.

The graphic card in that is not bad, its radeon hd.
but it's still an integrated graphics card..
Hp is the best quality for money right now. If you want more quality go for Lenovo but you won't get as good one for the same price. If you want a better spec laptop but of a bit worse quality go for Compal.
Also, AMD processors suck in laptops. It drains shitloads of energy. Core duos or Pentiums are much better for laptops.
If you want the BEST powerful and power saving set go for a Centrino 2 platform.