Any Canadians out there with a Mythlogic laptop able to share their experiences? (some general questions as well)

Background
My four year old Macbook Pro fried in its sleep and I'm in need of a replacement. Due to the amount of windows based programs I use (various CAD and math programs mostly) its more practical for me to go for a PC this time around. The #1 most important want on my list is build quality/reliability and good customer care. From lurking around and reading it seems like Mythlogic delivers in that aspect.

Primary Questions

Question 1
Are there any Canadians out there who can chime in on their experience of ordering a laptop from Mythlogic? What shipping did they use and what was the percent cost add-on for shipping/duties/taxes etc from their base checkout price for their laptop?

Question 2
Were you satisfied with your experience? Did the build quality meet your expectations? Is there any discernible difference between the quality of a Mythlogic laptop vs Sager?

Secondary Questions

Question 3
As someone who has my laptop on my lap 99% of the time, what are the temps of these things? My Macbook Pro would nearly burn my skin off at times and I'd like to avoid that again.

Question 4

What parts of the chassis are plastic vs aluminum?
Are the 15"ers a backbreaker to lug around in a backpack or no?

Question 5

I'm a little outdated on laptop technology and I don't really know much about solid state hard drives. Are they recommended as the go-to primary hard drive these days? I'm the least file-hoarding person out there. My 8GB Ipod has never been close to filled and my 250GB MBP was never close to filled. Is it reasonable for me to assume that a 128GB SSD paired with an external harddrive (that I already own) would be sufficient to carry me through? I pulled out my MBP's 250GB hard drive and placed it in an external case and I also own a 500GB LaCie external hard drive.

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I'll be on a no-work term this upcoming year in Engineering so I won't have any money coming in aside from bursaries/scholarships etc, so it's an unfortunate time for my laptop to die on me. Ideally I want to keep the total net cost <$1500 and I'm having an internal dilemma about whether to go with Mythlogic vs Reflexnotebooks while weighing in on factors such as build quality, customer service, features, life expectancy, and price.

Any input on ANY one of these questions would be greatly appreciated.

FWIW the specific laptop I'm currently leaning towards is the MYTHLOGIC Pollux 1412/Clevo W150 as portability is a need for me and I refuse to go above 15".

EDIT: Please forgive me if I don't respond right away, I have no computer whatsoever at my house and my only access to the internet now is through either my blackberry or my school's computers.

 

SSDs are a fair bit faster than normal hard drives, and the speed increase for using one for the OS and programs is definitely worth it. They're also more durable (or at least less likely to die if dropped or bumped), so if you're going to be carrying your laptop around a lot, they're good for peace of mind.

I've been getting by with a 96GB SSD and a few external drives for the last year or so; while it's certainly a bit irritating to juggle games back and forth between internal and external storage, my laptop boots up very quickly, and most programs start pretty much instantly. It really comes down to how much stuff you feel that you need to have with you at all times, how often you reboot or open programs, and how willing you are to deal with the space limitations.

That said, it seems to be generally cheaper to buy and install an SSD yourself, rather than buying one with the laptop; 120GB SSDs can be had for around $120-140 right now, although I'm not sure how their performance compares to those which Mythlogic or other retailers offer.

 

I loath you, 3ds browser. No way am I typing out all that again.

Basically, get a W110ER, get a 128GB ssd (samsung or crucial, Mythlogic has both).

 

Since the topic has come up, I was wondering if the cheaper Crucial is slower than the Intel 520 120gb SSD? It is much less expensive for some reason.

 

Intel is a very expensive drive in general. With the default Mythlogic options, the Samsung 830 is probably your best bet.

 

LOL! If I had a nickel for everytime I've written out a page worth of writing on a website browser using my blackberry only to lose it all.

Thanks everyone for the responses so far.
As for size I have my mind set on a 15" laptop. I don't own a TV so the laptop will also act as my primary TV/movie watching machine.