[geeks] OT Question - workhorse laptop

[Lionel Peterson]

I'm looking to get a new 'workhorse' laptop, and I find myself looking  
at two HP laptops, but I've no history with their HW - so I'm looking  
for feedback on the brand and these two lines of laptops.

The DV6-series laptop is an AMD M500 CPU, 128 Meg integrated graphics,  
15" screen, Blu-Ray/DVD-R/W, 8 gigs of DDR2 RAM and room for two HDs.  
Price is just under $700 at bestbuy.com...

The DV7-series laptop is similar, but it has an AMD M600 CPU (larger  
cache, sightly faster clock), 4 Gigs DDR3 RAM, same graphics with a  
17" display, and a non-Blu-Ray optical. Prices are fairly close,  
within $50 IIRC, but I am just out of my comfort zone - are these  
solidly-built laptops, or are they low-end consumer quality? This is  
about $729 at bestbuy.com...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+with+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Ultra+Dual-Core+Mobile+Processor/9556296.p?id=1218123847586&skuId=9556296&st=Turion%20amd%20m600

My goal is a laptop with lots of storage space and enough 'umph' to  
handle a small VM or two (or XPmode under Win7). Blu-Ray player woud  
be nice, but the better CPU/graphics will be appreciated down the line  
I'm sure...

Any insight into brands/models appreciated.

Thanks,

Lionel