What's a guy got to do to get a decent notebook?

Three years ago I purchased an Inspiron 6000 notebook when Dell was offering 40% off deals. Since then I've put many miles on my notebook, upgraded to Vista, upgraded to 2GB or RAM and filled the 60GB hard drive I thought would last me forever. I actually used my warranty to replace the power cord, DVD drive and Keyboard. Unfortunately Dell doesn't cover the faded wrist wrest issue or my degraded battery which now only lasts 30 minutes. I've needed to upgrade to a new notebook for over a year now but have been holding out for the right system to fit my needs.

Three years ago my needs were simple: internet, movies, email, finance, word processing and casual gaming were my main needs. I figured that a 1.83 Ghz Intel Processor combines with an ATI X300 video card with 128mb of RAM and a 60Gb hard drive would be a perfect fit. My needs have changed though after I purchased a digital camera and later a digital camcorder. Suddenly I find myself filling up my hard drive and grumbling over how long it takes to burn a DVD. I've also started viewing more video content online and downloading movies on my Xbox 360. I don't bother taking the notebook on vacation anymore because it is too bulky to carry around and I choose to just bring the camera and a large memory card instead.

I started watching the trends in processors and video cards, waiting for the right time to buy. I watched AMD buy out ATI, Intel go to the tic toc upgrades, AMD/ATI fall behind and NVIDIA take the lead in video cards. I decided to wait a bit since there were rumors of new technology coming soon that would better fit my needs and I wanted to see what AMD would do to make a comeback. Now the tide is changing again and I see AMD/ATI making a comeback. Intel has hit a few delays and NVIDIA has a huge fiasco with faulty video cards. I was going to keep waiting but with my daughter starting middle school she needs a better computer than her Inspiron 1100 which has been dying a slow death. I figure now would be the time to upgrade my notebook and pass along my old one that will be more than enough to meet her needs for now. My problem now is finding a system I can be happy with.

I want something lighter than my current notebook but powerful enough to edit video, music and photos easily. I know I do NOT want an NVIDIA video card but I'm up in the air over Intel or AMD processors. Intel is the leader but I like AMD's paring of CPU and GPU. Funny thing is that the only computers I can find with ATI video cards are either grossly underpowered or a brand I can't stand. It almost seems like Dell and Lenovo have something against AMD. Sure HP and Toshiba offer them but I can't stand them. I've looked at Sager but they are another NVIDIA supplier and Asus' site is too hard to use to bother trying to find out. So if anyone knows of a system that will meet my requirements let me know. Until then my search continues...