[MHannon]

Well..... I need a new laptop and need help picking which one. Currently I have an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad R52. This was my first laptop and I love it. It is indestructible, it has been dropped a couple times with no ill effects. My only major issue is I have a lot of music, Pushing 86 gigs. And about 2,000 photos. I love graphic design/photography and photoshop, so I am always snapping away. I am also big into the flight simulators, I have Microsoft flight sim 2002, X, and another one. All of this plus photoshop CS2 takes up a lot of room, and would be impossible to keep on my laptop, so I have a 300Gig external hard drive. This works very well, but I am in college and take my laptop everywhere I go, and I hate being tethered to the external drive. So, The next laptop needs a lot of memory, hopefully fast, and an extra large screen would be nice.
I have looked at some HPs and Compaqs but really didnt like the way they felt. They just felt flimsy and not as sturdy as my IBM. I like the Sony VIAOs. The only other one I have seriously looked at is the Panasonic ToughBook, These are definitely sturdy! and way overkill for my needs. I have no experience with Apple, but everyone I know who has one loves it. Where as, everyone I know with a new laptop that has VISTA, HATES it. So I guess since I still have my Windows XP boot disk, If I get a computer with VISTA, I can just wipe it and load XP onto it.
Can anyone recommend a good laptop for my needs?