frozenlead :
I've never referred to a notebook as "hard"..
Anyway, #1 spot goes to Clevo/Sager with me too. High quality, badass performance.
I'd throw #2 at IBM notebooks.
#2?
Number 2 ?!?!?!?!
You're just trying to kill me is all.
OP:
From a support perspective, IBM Thinkpads have been the most reliable and relatively easy to work on (hate changeing LCD covers though. . ugh!). Right now, in my mind, king of the hill belongs to the Thinkpad W series, namely the W700. The Thinkpad x300 / x301 is also very nice. The IdeaPad U110 is interesting. And the Y730 is almost a poor man's W700. After Lenovo, I'm quite impresed with the HP EliteBook series.
For pure gaming performance Clevo / Sager has a high reputation. I've never owned one.
MSI and OCZ have interesting alternatives to Clevo. . . I prefer MSI at the moment due to price, but I'm still not convinced of the build quality.
Then there's Apple, but the price by no means justifies the performance.
I'd never voluntarily own any of the following: Dell, Compaq, Sony, Toshiba, Acer.