MacBook Pro Replacement?

[mrr]

Hai! long-time lurker, first time poster?

 

Anyone found a laptop/notebook solution that they're using that they really feel to be a 100% replacement for a MacBook Pro? The prices of Apple hardware is so marked-up, I've vowed to never buy another piece of it. I recently sold a 24" iMac and built a gaming rig with a 26" monitor for $200 less than I sold the iMac for, with better specs. Craziness. I'm tempted to do the same with a laptop if I can.

 

I'd ideally like something with functional dual-boot, at least a 15" display (lots of pixels plz!), nice keyboard+trackpad, built-in (and functional in OS X) gigabit and wireless a/b/g (n optional?)

 

I have an old T42 that works okay, but I'd like something faster these days -- at least a Core 2 Duo mobile chip, and 4gb of RAM. Sleep *has* to work reliably... I'd be willing to sacrifice things for size (netbooks are appealing?) --- I'd like to be able to use things like VMWare without bringing the machine to a *total* halt.

 

 

Thanks!