The Sony VAIO GRT716S was the first laptop I owned and bought some 5 years ago now and its still running fine.

Overall, its fairly sturdy - desk height falls didn't do harm to it and it was also easy to keep clean.

Speedwise, with optimization, it hardly ever crashed on any software for me when other people reported constant crashes on their different systems, so I would believe the components were of high quality. It also ran software (i.e. games) that had minimum requirements well outside its capabilities so that was a big plus too.

Now as for downsides, it was fairly expensive when I bought it back in Germany, for almost 2000 Euros. After several years of use (despite regular internal cleaning), one of the fans ended up dying and the laptop would literally make your room temperature soar. However, if you buy a laptop cooler, that should not be a problem. Also, due to its high specs for a P4, the battery would literally run out within minutes, so keep it plugged!

This laptop still runs 5 years on and if you still have one, don't throw it - its still usable!