On the laptop front, I can't give enough reccomendation for ThinkPads. In the past several years, I can think of only one model specifically worth avoiding, the T61p, only because it suffered from the Quadro version of the GeFORCE 8600m GT GPU failure.
A regular T61 would be a great starting point, and the Dell version, the Latitude D630, is likewise a decent enough machine.
I personally just migrated away from a Penryn Core2 machine, the ThinkPad T400 (equivalent to the Latitude E6400) and am generally in the habit of recommending that people who are looking for used machines go for something about that age (late 2008, early 2009) or newer, since they'll use inexpensive ram, cheap hard disks, and the current versions of Dell's or Lenovo's power adapters. (Plus, it's fast enough at regular Windows or linux tasks. I started noticing some issues if I wanted to play games or do something crazy like play a game and listen to music at once, which was why I switched to a newer machine.)
I've heard that a good source for Latitudes, just as an aside, is dfsdirectsales.com -- They've got a variety of relatively modern machines which will be complete and have an OS for decent prices.
A regular T61 would be a great starting point, and the Dell version, the Latitude D630, is likewise a decent enough machine.
I personally just migrated away from a Penryn Core2 machine, the ThinkPad T400 (equivalent to the Latitude E6400) and am generally in the habit of recommending that people who are looking for used machines go for something about that age (late 2008, early 2009) or newer, since they'll use inexpensive ram, cheap hard disks, and the current versions of Dell's or Lenovo's power adapters. (Plus, it's fast enough at regular Windows or linux tasks. I started noticing some issues if I wanted to play games or do something crazy like play a game and listen to music at once, which was why I switched to a newer machine.)
I've heard that a good source for Latitudes, just as an aside, is dfsdirectsales.com -- They've got a variety of relatively modern machines which will be complete and have an OS for decent prices.