my preferred brand would have been the ibm netvista... i absolutely love the shape and the speed.. prior that it was one of the first at machine - nec which was o-kay.. too costly when it came to getting the RAM and everything else.. I gave it up after a while.. it refused to work when I switched it on.. so gave it away gleefully, only to find later that the person who got it got it working... {as crazy as I am, he said I forgot to plug in the thing -- yeah right!}
anyways, now am using a fujitsu-siemens, and its pretty cool.. its up 20/24 and needs rebooting when it slacks like when I need to go to the ladies.. otherwise its pretty neat.. i think I'll give it away too.. i need a lifebook.. or maybe a powerbook.. i don't want to have to be immobile in a mobile world
as to building one's own.. i used to do that when I was in the IT biz.. for people who'd order their machines. I'd come with the cheapest config, and get it done all with my two hands.. it was fun while it lasted... even had the sticker on the casing commissioned.. you wouldn't guess the name of the system
and yes, i think its a pretty cool sig too