I didn't immediately find the Amazon listing, but the Compaq Presario CQ5600F is currently shown direct from HP with (apparently) Win7 premium 64 bit, 2GB SDRAM, light scribe DVD burner, and a 500 GB hard drive with free shipping, for $299 - after an "instant rebate" of $50. Of course it's "for a limited time only," but that's pretty much the rule at most of the manufacturers. I didn't see mention of any "productivity software" but if the old computer is going away some of what's on it might be portable to the new machine(?).

This would likely be a good buy if Win7 is an appropriate OS for the program that needs to run on it.

Gateway and Acer also are frequently mentioned as leaders in the "budget desktop" listings, and either is likely to be satisfactory if all the details are appropriate. although the prices quoted are a little over the "less than $500" requested.

John