I purchased my Acer for $350 at Circuit City, though I do not recommend anyone do that again. Acer does not provide technical support for its computer (it claims it does, but trust me, the company does NOT follow through). So, the only support you get is from the extended warranty you buy through Circuit City. It's great and everything; I mean, your laptop is covered no matter what happens to it (dropped, drink spills, dog urinates on it, etc)...but for minor problems, it's only when CC feels like it's convinient to fix the computer. That's where the need for on the phone tech support comes in. If you have a computer company that gives support for the hardware AND operating system, then you'll get along great. I just helped one of my clients purchase a Dell Inspiron for $500. It had an AMD Athlon 64x2 Processor, 3 GB RAM, big video card, and DVD+/- RW. It was an all around great machine. I highly recommend going with Dell. Wonderful tech support, good hardware - it's exactly what someone who is looking for a good, inexpensive laptop needs.