Brandwise, daghan man nindot. (Dell, HP, Asus... Gigabyte)
Pero, you should choose the best your money CAN buy, not just the name, but the features.
Go for dual-core laptops, affordable na sila karon, make sure you buy a laptop with DDR2 Memory (1GB at least). And if you want to throw games, buy something with a good graphics chip.
When you talk about a mac, well, a mac definitely has better hardware... And has a sleeker, and more secure OS...
A Mac has a few issues in gaming though, It can only play a few, Warcraft III, Chessgames, Tetris Profor mac, and did I mention Tetris Profor mac?
how about my old starcraft?