Judy, I'm sure you know what you are doing and have done your research, just wanted to let you know that last Christmas, I got Melissa an Acer from TigerDirect.com & she is very happy with it. It's not a pretty laptop, very basic, but for the price it's a really good machine. Here's a link to the latest version of the one she has:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Sku=A180-14005
I'm always hesitant to make too much of a recommendation on electronics these days though. One is good, another made on the same assembly line may be bad. You just never know.
They also carry HP and others and are offering some pretty impressive deals right now. I paid like $468 for the Acer last year. This year it's $499. I bought her portable external hard drive to back it up for $70. I figured for this price, it's a throwaway if anything goes wrong.
Karen (oldest daughter) has a Toshiba that is about a year and 1/2 old, that she paid much more for, and it is prone to crashing on her at the most inopportune times. It has a bad thermister that keeps shunting out, and is, of course, out of warranty.