Hmm, money. Just today I have thought: "If only I had $630 to buy my stepsister a decent laptop so that she can study outside her noisy home with her heavy aspie brother."
Check Amazon and eBay. I got my sister a great used i7 Thinkpad for Christmas / graduation for around $200. I added more RAM and an SSD but those were pretty inexpensive too. She's been super happy with it.