New $299 laptops are available on the market but they come with 7 inch screens and 2 GB hard drives. If you want a new regular-sized laptop computer with at least an 80 GB hard drive then you're going to have to bump up your budget to at least $399. Ebay and some other computer auctions are the only places I can think of where you could find 299 dollar laptop computers. Keep in mind that $299 laptops sold on auction sites are most likely used with the actual condition depending on the seller and whether any refurbishment or recertification gets completed before shipment.
It's important to note that there are new desktop computers on the market that start at $199 and are plenty suitable for surfing the internet safely, checking and sending email, listening to and burning CDs, watching DVDs, and downloading or saving a reasonable amount of files. The lowest-priced laptops typically go for $399 although Asus does produce the 7 inch model that starts at $299(remember it only