Check out
www.notebookforums.com. Aside from more info. and argument (?!?) than you'd believe on the merits of different notebooks, by brand, the first forum is "Notebook Deals and Coupons". It's updated every few days with coupons and links to special offers from the various vendors, notably Dell. You can probably buy a new notebook for what you want to spend.
Just about all major brand notebooks, including Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba, IBM and Apple, are manufactured (and in most cases designed) by a few OEM manufacturers in Taiwan that have factories around east Asia, so that a Dell is just as good or bad as a Toshiba - they were made in the same factory. Just find one that has the features and price that work for you, and pay for the level of warranty protection you want. We had a bad experience with Dell support for our desktops, but I've heard similar stories about every major vendor, though IBM (now owned by a Chinese company, Lenovo), seems to be better than most.