I jsut got a Gateway Athlon 64 (2.2Ghz) notebook. 512ddr 80gig (4200 - I don't do too much recording on it but I have gotten 12 tracks with no problem).
This notebook works great for audio even with the intrnal audio. (I have, of course, tweaked it for audio). The cool thing about my model is that the keyboard, DVD burner are both user replaceable! . The HDD and RAM are too but most notebooks can do that. It's built very solidly too.
FWIW I used to work for HP and I would not consider an HP notebook for audio.
