GG, agree, Acer fine, put some decent memory (3GB) into this 17" Aspire 3 yrs ago, still going strong. The new ones look good as standard.
Now Macs, well the imac is going strong after 2 yrs, but a friend's Macbook air has just expired (battery, HD and charging circuit) after 2 years, and I still have his broken G3 powerbook from 1999 (£2200 new!)
Moral of the story, don't be an early adopter with portable Macs, if you still like the brand have deep pockets.
Asus worth a look for windows portables, Toshiba also ..