Software Development Laptop <$2000.00 recommendations

[Rgreen]

Hi all. My father is looking to buy a laptop for his business which is software development. Budget is <$2000.00 Main points of consideration are reliable hardware, good customer service, good warranty, dvd/cdwriter combo drive, 1 GB ram, xp pro, 15" or 17" screen, 60-80gb hard drive. He will primarily be using the computer at home in the living room but sometimes on the road as well although weight is not a primary concern. In the past i looked at Dell but lately their customer service has been so frustrating i almost don't want to buy from them anymore. Any suggestions are appreciated.

---Ryan

 

[AmigaMan]

I have a Dell Inspiron 9200 with a 17" LCD, P-M 1.8, 2GB RAM, and it's my primary J2EE development machine. It's mostly because my workplace only shelled out 1GB of RAM for the desktops they provide. 2GB makes a ton of difference plus I also have it hooked up to an external LCD so I can run dual screen. Perfect for development.
I also upgraded to an 80GB harddrive so I can devote more room to my Linux partition and still have Windows available for games.