Problem is, the only decent quality machines I've ever had have been ThinkPads. I'm afraid of paying big money for a high-end machine from some other brand and

Problem is, the only decent quality machines I've ever had have been ThinkPads. I'm afraid of paying big money for a high-end machine from some other brand and having it turn out to be somewhat of a lemon. Of course there is always Apple, which has consistently high quality, but I prefer to run Linux, so that's out.