[brijar]

I've come across several of those HP DV6000/9000 and a friend has the cheaper version, the Compaq V3000 or V6000. All have had trouble with something on the motherboard. How did you fix the ones you came across? Reflowing the northbridge/graphics chip? My friend's V6000 first had the USB ports die, then the LCD got cracked. I took the screen off and made it into a thin lightweight desktop since the VGA port still worked. A few months later it wouldn't turn on at all however.

As far as getting a new laptop goes, Toshiba is my favorite brand since the ones I have are fairly easy to work on and don't cost much. I don't think I would ever put over $1000 into a laptop since a $600 or $700 one will do pretty much anything a $2000 one will do (unless you're looking for epic graphics chips or a 3D screen or multiple hard drive bays etc).
If you want something that's going to be really quick, get one with an SSD. They are pretty expensive and are fairly low capacity, but my SSD is what makes my desktop so snappy and responsive. The ideal setup would be to have an SSD and a 500GB+ drive in a laptop, but dual hard drive bays are slightly harder to find than single ones, especially in smaller 15.6" laptops. I have a 3 year old 17" Toshiba right now (16:10 ratio, so not as wide as most newer laptops) and it is really nice. I think I will buy a 15.6" next time, however, because the 17" screen is not as portable as I would like. Great for movies tho.

Good luck!