Cheap, yet decently powered, notebooks are not hard to find anymore these days. One very good choice would be the Gateway EC1430u notebook.

Starting at just $550, the Gateway EC1430u notebook has a 1.3 GHz Intel Premium SU 4100 processor and 3 GB of RAM. The hard drive is able to store up to 320 GB. It also has the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD for graphics support.

Measuring just 11.2 x 8.0 x 1.2 inches, the EC1430u is virtually identical in stature to the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810T (11.2 x 8.0 x 1.2 inches) and the HP Mini 311 (11.4 x 8.0 x 1.2 inches), a notebook and a netbook that both feature 11.6-inch displays. Like those systems, the EC1430u weighs just 3.2 pounds, making it a PC that’s remarkably easy to carry.

Other specifications include two USB 2.0 ports, headphone and microphone jacks, Ethernet and Kensington lock ports, and a 5-in-1 memory card reader, HDMI, VGA, and the power port; the back of the machine is bare, and the six-cell battery sits against the system; the bottom front of the EC1430u has a pair of stereo speakers and switches to activate or deactivate the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections.