The laptop is for work.  Mostly remotely accessing lots of servers and virtual machines.  My problem is two-fold, first I have VERY little time working on any laptop (just never liked how small they were for a big guy like me) and, two, until I actually am working I have very little money to spend on one.  
 
When you start talking about cheaper computer gear, you run into cheaply made (avoid), feature reduced (avoid) and good deals for the price (what I'm looking for).  Add that to decent used laptops and there you go.  So, what I was really looking for were recommendations of good deals and decent used laptops at a reasonably low price.  Warnings of which brands/models to avoid are always welcome too (as are advice to save up for a more expensive, but better in the long run, choice if that's applicable).
 
My new employer might have one for me, but I'm guessing that they don't have a Windows laptop available.  Sure, they could always buy a new one for me, but I'd kind of like one that I could use for non-work stuff too (which would require me owning it).

Seems to me your best bet is just head on over to one of the local box stores and poke at all the current floor models. Bring a a pad of paper and write down the model numbers of the units you like and why (and why not).
 
Then when you get home go browse Newegg armed with your model #'s to check out their prices/specials and most definitely look at the customer reviews from folks who own the unit(s).
 
Also check out Amazon for the same thing but really Newegg is a better site for this stuff.
 
Then if you want to try looking for used lappy's scour ebay but generally anything good and headache free is gonna get scooped up for about as much (if not more) than what you'd pay for something modern/new.
 
Ebay jumped the proverbial shark many moons ago.

All good info!  I was just told (separately) almost all of those same things - lol!
 
And ebay can be dumped in a lake as far as I'm concerned.  I haven't used it for a long time now.

Stay away from HP. Even the plastic is sub standard on those.

I just bought a Dell for my wife, she loves it. 15.6 screen, i5, 8mb ram, 1T hard drive. We paid $499 for it at Office Depot.

michaelhanson
I just bought a Dell for my wife, she loves it. 15.6 screen, i5, 8mb ram, 1T hard drive. We paid $499 for it at Office Depot.

I remember when 8mb RAM was a lot (I used a couple of 1k ram machines like the Pet or Timex Sinclair back in the day)...
 
I also believe you meant to say 8Gb of RAM too! 

I've used a 17" HP ENVY (MacBook clone) with Win7. 16gb ram, 2x 750gb HDDs (internal), 3 USB -2s, 1 USB-3, 1 HDMI, 2 DPs, wifi, & internet running a 2nd 24" monitor, as my main DAW for a while. It's worked as well as any system and even better once I implemented Cake's recommended windows settings. Cost was above average though, around $1200-1500. I bought it on eBay since no one locally sells LPs @ this level.

That sounds like a nice machine!

Only CON is the fans are a bit noisy for me. My old (home built) XP desktop is much quieter. Unless I find a way to isolate it, it may get replaced.
 
....hmmm. I may just have a solution for this.

craigb

michaelhanson
I just bought a Dell for my wife, she loves it. 15.6 screen, i5, 8mb ram, 1T hard drive. We paid $499 for it at Office Depot.

I remember when 8mb RAM was a lot (I used a couple of 1k ram machines like the Pet or Timex Sinclair back in the day)...
 
I also believe you meant to say 8Gb of RAM too! 

Yes, sometimes while typing from my iPhone, I seem to be all thumbs.  
 
I assumed you would be running typical business software like Outlook, Word, Excel and Power Point.  If you are going to multipurpose the Laptop and do some music production from it as well, certainly it would need more horsepower.