I bought 17.3 Acer for $399 at Walmart on one of those before Christmas daily specials. It does everything I want it to and has killer graphics, BluRay player, Media card reader, 6GB ram and I have never had any issues at all. I love the wide screen and once you use a widescreen that is all you will ever want to use. Oh and I can stream netflix to my tv from it also.
Go to Tigerdirect.com and see what you can find there. I love their prices and the customer service is spot on!
Billy