maybe a lenovo? i'm sort of a tech savy person, and I've own quite a few different notebook, I've found that toshiba/lenovo low end models are generally decent quality, HP and dell models on the low end aren't very good but their high end is quite nice.

After my HP G62 broke (had it for about 18 months), the mobo just went poof, i decided to go with a used tablet (TC4400) and generally been ok with it... also picked up a dell D630 and a D620, both are also good, but for the most part I'm just using them to tinker around. so if you like to tinker around, used a good options, those core 2 duo notebook are a little old but they are good work horse.