What is a good laptop for under $500?

[kf0rt]

What will you be using it for?

If it's just Internet and "light" computing, there are a few netbooks in the $300 range that aren't too bad. Small, very portable. But not the best if you're doing serious work.

are you kidding??...Never anything serious going on here.

maybe 12" min 15" max would be OK. Gonna have to be able to play poker on it though.

Late in reply...

I have an Acer Aspire One (runs XP). Tiny thing -- I think the screen is 9 or 10 inches. Paid about $300 for it new with a "bigger battery" that lasts 5 hours or so. Screen resolution is 1024 x 600. It has a built-in touch-pad for a mouse, but you can plug in a USB mouse easy enough. 160GB hard drive and built-in WiFi, but no CD/DVD drive. It's got two SD card slots for camera memory. Intel Atom CPU with one paltry Gig of RAM.

Mostly, I hate laptops, but this machine works pretty well.

Toshiba has always been a good bet. Check out geeks.com -- they always have some good deals.

[n6hcm]

I've also had excellent results with TigerDirect.

so have i. you really do have to read the description and pay attention--deals are to be had. i got one of these through tiger direct last winter and have been very pleased. (i'm not sure i'd get a 17" laptop again, but that's not td's fault ... plus it never leaves the house, so it's not like i'm schlepping it through airports).

[kc7jty]

If I get an Acer with vista will a lay person like me be able to easily purge everything out of it before installing the new Windows 7 when it comes out?

[n6hcm]

should be really easy ... in fact, i think that any new system you buy today should come with a free win7 upgrade ... but make sure you burn copies of the vista installation media (many new systems don't come with installation media--you have to burn your own) before wiping the disk and installing win7. there may be vendor-specific bits installed with vista that you may need for win7 ...

[kc7jty]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... ku=9496191
I could have had this today for $330 + 6% Idaho tax but will try to get it for $302 and no tax later this week. Probably won't have much luck though, and the one for $330 today was the last one in stock.

[n6hcm]

I could have had this today for $330 + 6% Idaho tax but will try to get it for $302 and no tax later this week. Probably won't have much luck though, and the one for $330 today was the last one in stock.

see if one of the local staples/office {depot,max} will do a price match. they have to have it in stock at both places, of course ...

also--see if amazon has it ... they don't collect tax in most states plus free shipping ...

[just checked--here in six-land office depot is offering this for $329.99 through 10-10 and it is showing in stock at several local (to me) stores. office depot price match policy can be found here.