you're looking at something very entry level for that price, pc world does do laptops cheaper than £500, but they are their own advent brand. i can't comment on their reliability as i've not ever hand first had experience of them.
however, i can recommend acer, toshiba, and hp as brands which are reliable (we have a 200 laptops at my work, a mixture of these brands and all of them are pretty reliable and they get knocked about quite a bit too):
technical support on all of the above has been good where i've needed it too.
this little number:
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productprese ... 3D%26P%3D2
which as 512mb ram, wireless, a cdrw-dvd-ro drive, 40gb disk isn't too bad for the money. it's screen is a bit on the small side at 14"
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productprese ... 3D%26P%3D2
this one has 256mb ram, but a bigger screen and a dvd writer.
it'd probably go for a bigger screen and upgrade the ram later if i was you. windows xp is perfectly usable with 256mb ram, especially if, as you say, you're only going to be doing basic stuff. however, it will make your computing experience a bit smoother, so i'd add the extra ram in when you can afford it.
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