Any of the well known brands are good. HP, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo, Acer with Acer being probably the biggest bang for the buck. Don't buy into the "this brand sucks, died on me after ....". It's crap. Just like everything consumer wise, it comes down to luck. I've had one HP for 5 years, another HP for over 2 years, one Acer for over 3 years, two Toshiba's for over 3 years. Not one has ever caused me problems.
If it's faulty, it will die in the first month, if not, it will most likely serve you for a long time before dying(the baterry the first thing to go). So don't fall for the extended warranty pitch, it's a bait that will cost you money and won't do you any good(it doesn't even cover the battery).
So look for best price. General guidelines; try and get as much RAM as possible, 2GB being the minimum, dual-core CPU and a separate GPU(meaning it's not sharing it's memory from the RAM). These are questions any seller can answer you in a store.