Hmm... that's a tough price range. The two laptops I bought in that range (Gateway MT6729 and HP dv6700, i think) were bought in 2008 and are long gone. They la

Hmm... that's a tough price range. The two laptops I bought in that range (Gateway MT6729 and HP dv6700, i think) were bought in 2008 and are long gone. They lasted all of 2 years max, so I would consider them to be of low quality. And that's the problem with ~$500 machines. I don't use MacBooks anymore because they make it difficult for me to get a Linux distro on them, but I have had two and they lasted considerably longer. Unfortunately, there seems to be a high correlation with increase in price and increase in quality. So it's not pretty, but I have had good luck with a thinkpad once upon a time (at a higher price point). So in the end, here is my tangible recommendation: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310605 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310...