what is the cheapest/best quality notebook pc for a college student?

dell always has some good prices for midrange laptops

I have a Dell Inspiron 2200. It is a very good laptop and was less than $400. It (or whatever the most updated version of it is) will definitely be good enough for a college student. It arrived in the mail several days after I ordered it.

Refurbished Dells start at $299 and go to $599. If it is stolen or lost, or dropped, and destroyed, that is almost affordable...

With a warranty, at http://cheaptronicsdepot.com/ is just down the street from me, and I like the quality even if I do work on MACs!

And, MACs are on the refurbished site, with warranty, at http://apple.com/

I simply recommend against buying from ebay, on high cost items, without warranty, as I have seen too many sad losses!!!

I don't know where you are, but if you can afford second hand laptop which build in Japan, it's cheap. you can try to find like Fujitsu, Hitachi or Compaq with at least RAM 128MB & Pentium III Processor, it's better to use as you are a student. and the price about 300USD down, I think.

Dell offers discounts for college students! check ur school if they have any connections with any computer dealers! they have contracts to give students a better deal! always check.

For quality, check out the new Macbook (I know it's not a PC, but it can run Windows). http://www.apple.com/macbook/macbook.html

They start at $1099.00

look in this week's best buy ad. i saw something there reduced to $499 and it was a quality computer

Try Dell inspiron series noteboks, they are cheap and reliable for years.