Yeah, well Dell isn't exactly known for durable construction, are they! Runs against the business model and all that. (we have two Dell notebooks around here already).

No question that other brands IBM, HP, Sony, (gasp!) Toshiba & Compaq are more solidly built, and priced accordingly.

But up here in the land of snow and ice, everything costs proportionally more than in the sunny south, and this just magnifies the Dell difference. I'm currently leaning hard towards ordering a maxed-out 9300 on Tuesday, with full on-site warranty to counter any serious build/durability issues for 3 years.

Still sounds very hit and miss, though. I know my Thinkpad is way (WAY!) more rugged than either Dell in the house, but at 2X the price it oughta be.

Thanks for the data points.

Cheers!