YYZ,
a couple of posters have mentioned Gericom. They are well regarded in Germany as being an affordable brand.
Bladewashout mentions IBMs. I have a T43 here (a work machine), and they aren't bad. A mate accidently put a glass of red wine through one, and three days later, it fired up again. He cannot get rid of the smell, though
.
Acer does have a drawback in that the partitioning schema can be a bit bizarre - I think they put FAT32 on mine, which was promptly dismissed!
BOFH