As long as you stayed away from the Aspire line and choose one from the Travelmate line they were good value for the money.

In germany we had the (in)famous brand "Gericom", that build thick, hot, loud Pentium 4 laptops, sold mainly by the large retailers like Media Markt. They inevitably broke down (often literally!) after the warrany expired.

Thinkpads were unreachable for most, though there were good discounts to be had for students.