So it looks like i may be able to convince my work to get me a new laptop for a project i am going to be working, and they asked me to spec one out and give them the price. I would love to get a laptop with an SSD if possible, but i need to get something prebuilt from a reputable company (probably dell/hp/acer). If anyone has one that fits this bill or knows of one in the ~$2k price range let me know.

First, you have to define or devine what "best" means.

Sorry for not being more clear. But I am looking for the most powerfull laptop i can get with an SSD for around $2k. Processor speed is probably the second most important item for me. I don't need much of a graphics card (as i am mainly doing heavy matlap/labview/teststand processing), decent screen size would be nice (16"+) although i could go with less if it means i got something more portable. I think i will need a DVD burner drive as well. Other then that i am pretty flexible.

I found a couple that might fit the bill (don't have time to post at the moment though).

Ok, so i found two contenders with SSD options, although they are pretty drastically different.

The Dell Latitude Z as the ultra mobile contender:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/...&cs=04&~oid=us~en~4~laptop-latitude-z-anav1~~

vs a DELL Studio XPS with SSD option.
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DYDWFN5&s=dhs

They have pretty drastically different specs, but the prices are roughly comparable. My main concern with the Latitude Z would be if the Intel® Core™ 2 Duo SU9400 is fast enough for me vs the Core i7 mobile CPU on the XPS. The main applications i am going to be using are Labview and TestStand (which spec wise won't have a problem). The extra power from the XPS is very tempting, but not sure i want to lug it around on travel.