Quote Originally Posted by littleindiangirl View Post
I have a Toshiba Satellite, and I LOOOOVE it! Runs great, plays graphic intensive video games, the only thing I really really don't like its the volume control. THe speakers are nice, but it's too quite by default, and when you bend and turn with it in your lap, it turns up or down because the dial is in the front.

With all the keyboard room it has, you'd think they'd put the control up there.
How old is your Satellite?
I *HATED* mine. It would overheat even just sitting on my desk (don't even think about putting it on your lap!) and so that killed a couple hard drives

I actually still have it hanging out in my closet, but after like 3 years the battery already doesn't hold a charge, and every couple months it has a major system failure and I have to reformat the hard drive. But it would work great as a non-portable internet machine!
A fried of mine had overheating problems too and took it back to Best Buy. They said to her "Overheating? Of course, it's a Toshiba!"]plus they're far more expensive than many other brands (hp, gateway and dell mostly)

I have an HP (tablet) now and I really like it. All my problems have been operating system/driver related and they've all been my fault for trying to upgrade to vista.

Really though, (to the OP) if you want just something to do word processing for super cheap, Dell might not be a bad choice (as much as it sickens me to say it haha) Any computer made within the last like 20 years will be able to support a thumb drive (haha maybe a little over exaggeration)
I don't know how good you are at typing, or if you're planning on taking notes in real time, but I find having a tablet, or a convertible tablet, to be *awesome* for classes. They are without a doubt a little pricier, but I at least write a whole lot faster than I type, so if you can find one in your price range it might be worth it.
(I know I just trash talked toshibas so much, but it looks like they might have one that's not too pricy hehe....another good place to look for recommendations is http://www.cnet.com )

Sorry for the long post, I just get excited about computer shopping!