Generally Dell's good value for your money, they have a new economy line the 1000 and 1100, which should do what you need it to. For my money, I buy older/used Thinkpads, but that's because they're the only notepad keyboards I can tolerate... plus they're built like tanks and rarely fail (and when they do they're usually easily self diag and fixed). And while I can't stand the Dells, I know too many people happy with theirs not to recommend at least checking them out.