What is a good laptop for under $500?

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Thanks Luke.
Is that Acer the left handed model? The pad is left of center.

That is curious ... the 5000 has the pad dead in the center. Here's a picture of mine, taken about a year ago:

[attachment=0:cou1irhx]acer5000.jpg[/attachment:cou1irhx]

I have no idea what's up with the mouse pad being offset from center. TigerDirect had quite a few Acers with 11.6" displays for even less, but I think the wide screen is a big plus!

The TFT display, even after almost 5 years, is still bright and crisp.

My 5000's have the AMD processors, a first for me. After I stuffed them with 2 GB of RAM, these machines are quite fast.

They also listed quite a few that still offer Windows XP, but if I were buying a new machine. I'd suffer Vista as long as I had the upgrade coupon!