[samstave]

I've had a number of S76 laptops... and at the time I had them, they were the best bang for your buck on guts, however the cases for their older models were a bit chintzy. Out of (4) of the exact same laptops from S76, (3) of them had screws internally fall out and rattle around the case. Also, they changed the interface between the mobo and the screen between purchases, so one machine that had a bad mobo, and one machine that had a cracked screen couldnt be harvested for parts between them :-(

Their support was superb, but I havent tried that out in a long while...

However - I would still use them in the future...

But, My next purchase for a linux/windows dual boot machine is going to be the Lenovo Y545 -- It has all the guts I would need on both platforms and the price is fantastic. I checked out the case at Costco the other day and it feels solid. ($999 at costco)