thanks for the comments

Tomos: what's the machine going to be used for?
-f0dder
nothing much - I mean some office type work, ordering stuff on the net. *Maybe* something like InfoQube to try keep track of things.
That's why I thought get the one with more memory - as it's shared, there should be enough to go around then.
I've seen Windows 7 with 2GB memory and it's a lot slower than I'm used to with XP and 2GB ram, but then that could have been cause of a crappy CPU and absence of graphics card too

There is a version of this machine with a 256MB graphics card for about 550, but according to reviews that's a bit noisy then...
(They probably would stretch the budget if I said it was important/worthwhile.)
It's not supposed to be that great a laptop - it's pretty low on the Thinkpad scale, and I know they havent so good a rep any more, but who does these days - especially for under 500 euro? (keep in mind hardware is a lot more expensive in Europe than in the States)
For that price I havent found anything better...
Here's a summary of reviews
http://alatest.com/e...510/pe3-87102410,30/