I picked up a “cheap” laptop for the wife / garage, through dell ~month ago. I went through dell because there was a ~$200 coupon on slickdeals, and I got ~$85 off through work discount (PM me for).
Dell 1501, Amd Turion, 1gb ram, Vista basic.
IIRC it was ~$720 -275 coupons = 445.
and got a $50 Dell gift card which I plan on selling
IOW, check slickdeals & that once a week to see whats on sale. Dell is has pretty good sale items fairly often; Toshiba does it too.