Fav make and model if you don't need all the very latest: Acer 5517 like this one on ebay:
Acer Aspire 5517-5535 15.6" (250GB, AMD Athlon 64, 1.6GHz, 3GB) Notebook -... 99802430641 | eBay
Bought mine for $399 at a black Friday sale in 2008.....Use it all day; everyday.....I thought my 1st was goning bad a few yrs ago, so I bought a 2nd off Ebay for $105 that is like brand new...Well, they are both still going strong. I wore all the markings off the keyboard on the 1st one and put a new keyboard in, so yes, I work on them a bit.
A big plus to buying one of these is they come with Win 7. Just my experience.