Laptops between $500-600 range???

[Smittie61984]

Need some help.

My puter isn't working so well. It's a laptop with a screen that can't close due to the hinge being broken. Also the power jack is loose and I have to twist the power cord just the right way for it to charge and I can't use it then. Roughly $500 to fix the screen and $185 to fix the jack is what I have found. So I decided to say F'it and get a new computer.

My current computer is a gateway M366 or M336. Something like that. I can't even find a jack even using Gateway's website with the model search. But what it has is roughly 80GBs with 1gb of RAM with Intel Centrino duo something something (Basically I know litte about computers). I found for $685 (Cost to fix my computer back to normal) I can get a new computer with 250+GB and 3gb of RAM.

But again I know little about computers and don't want to screw myself with a bad computer. All I really know is bigger numbers are better (And more expensive).

Now I don't play video games at all. Not on a computer nor Playstation,Xbox,Wii,etc. I need it mainly for school and surfing the interwebs. Large harddrive is a plus since I have thousands and thousands of pics and a ton of videos with more to come once I get a helmet camera. Plus I have a lot of music that I play while doing school work and searching multiple websites at once. I guess I need Microsoft Word along with some sort of Movie editor like Windows Movie Maker. 15"-16" screen. I do like it when the computer acts fast. That's all I can really think of.

Here are some choices I have found. Let me know what you think.
This is what I originally wanted but it looks like they are all out
It's a Toshiba
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218010173766

Acer
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218021916305

Now Circuit City is closing all their Atlanta stores so I'm hoping I can get a better deal at the store if they have it...
HP
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/HP-G6...oductDetail.do

Sony Vaio
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Sony-...oductDetail.do

Any help is appreciated cause I have to have a new one by next week for school (All my math homework is done online).