Hmm... for that pricerange. .you should also look at Toshiba.. i have always been pleased with their products.. HP and Compaq in the lower price range have always been poorly built and tend to have multiple issues (just coming from past tech manager experience).. Toshiba's and Sony have always been my favorite two brands when talking about retail... Dell is pretty decent.. only issue ive ever ran into with them was having to always send the machine/laptop back to them for repairs, where as if u go to retail store, (if you get their service plan, on a laptop, well worth it to get one with accidental damage coverage, trust me ) you can take your machine to them for repairs, and "usually" have a little better turnaround time.. your best bet is talking to the service department and let them know the models you are looking/interested in and see wehat they tend to get more of in for repairs and what not.. also, find out what brands they repair in house..some manufacturers dont like tech departments working on their laptops and require them to ship it back to them as well..

As for the brand. .Sony is usuallly nice looking and higher qual, but you tend to also pay for that . not to many Sony's that I recall in the 500ish range.. but plenty of Tosh and them.. Asus has come out with some decent laptops in that range as well ive seen..

also.. i cant recall 100% .. but x64 is also now allowing larger than 2TB hard drives as well right/.. isnt x86 limited there as well?? i cant remember off top of my head right now.. <--lack of sleep :P

but yes.. like Avinash said, x64 will let you go above the 4gb limit that x86 imposes which is nice, depending on what you are gonna do of course, to me.. x64 also appears to run slightly faster as well.. not just because of the extra ram.. i mean, same specs between the 2 (say 3gb ram, 500gb hdd, same speed processor, etc) and i think the x64 will normally slightly out perform as well..

But like many have said.. i would try to get at least something with 3gb ddr3 ram, 500gb hdd, and a dual core or i series (think they are like 3 5 and 7 now?? i know there is a 5 and 7, just cant recall if the other is a 3 or somthn) . then you have to decide what size screen as well.. in the 500$ range... prolly gonna end up with 15in or so.. maybe 17.. if lucky..

Also.. what do you plan to do with the laptop?? is it gonna be for gaming, school, work.. normal home stuff like internet, etc??? this also factors in... for gaming,, a nice video card (not built in memory, but an actual video card) with 1gb at least is a +.. 512 can manage most games. .but some of the more recent games and more strenous ones might put a beating on those as well..

There are tons of things to consider... other things like how many USB ports it has, do you want/need HDMI output.. do you need the blu-ray or just a dvd player.. or do you need either as a burner as well...

anyway.. sorry for long rant.. but hope helps some.. always up for helping with buy... but you could also consider ordering from other non retail type shops that build their own.. if you plan on staying in your location and not gonna move.. they will be there for you since no other retail chains etc.. unless they go out of business ofc.. but a lot of times, you can find some good deals with them as well

Zug