A lot of people haven't heard of them, but Clevo is a major laptop OEM that makes both rock-solid business platforms and gaming platforms. Sager, System76, Fal

A lot of people haven't heard of them, but Clevo is a major laptop OEM that makes both rock-solid business platforms and gaming platforms. Sager, System76, FalconNW, and most other boutique laptop builders use rebadged/modified Clevo systems. Clevo doesn't sell direct to customers, but there are plenty of sites where you can buy customized or barebones systems for very reasonable prices. This summer I bought a W670SZQ from AVADirect, with an i5 and SSD it was just under $900. For a full size 17" laptop the weight is very reasonable, and it's a great system that Xubuntu and Mint worked fine on with zero tweaking.