One thing Mike mentioned in the first post in this thread was that the laptops were only about $500. It sounds like there's a lot of consensus that there are better laptops out there than HPs, but if he's looking in the $500 range are any of these things options? I'm real happy with the ThinkPad I got to replace my HP Pavilion, but it wasn't close to $500. Mike -- how important is the $500 part?