my last lap top was a sony,£500 from tesco, done me for about 5 yrs now and is still going strong,its done a lot of work for me, was always on and connected 24/7.despite the fact that i dropped it breaking 1 usb port and broke my cd rom and card slot reader, its still going.
recently from tesco direct again, iv bought a toshiba satellite lap top, very pleased with it cost was about £380, i would highly recomend, but remember you get what you pay for,too cheap wont last