Any Toshiba Ive had has always died a premature and extreme death - mobo, screen, and always about a month after the 1 year warranty is up
I dont know anymore, what to recommend. If it breaks its a pain in the ass regardless of brand. I have a toughbook now and love it, before i had a few POS toshibas, and before that i had a POS HP...
I usually have no problem getting local service for most brands, except for Acer which I had to sent to Ontario but still only took a little over a week.
I would wait on a MAC... when the new intel chips come the current models prices will droooop. I had a iBook but sold it already in anticipation of the intel's