What brand has the best laptops right now?

The best brands are, HP, Asus, Lenovo, Sony and Toshiba. Stay away from Acer and Dell.

How much ram are we talking. You can easily get 4GB for under $600, but if you want 8GB of ram or more than your going to have to go up a little. My last computer was a Sony and it was great. Once I got a new computer, my Sony went to my mom who had an older computer. She likes it real well. So if you found a Sony you like in your price range, I say go for it.

For 600 you could get ram and memory in an acer, maybe an hp. But you won't get the processing power depending on what software application you intend to use. Dell XPS systems are pretty good for this sorta thing but most start around 800 for basic models.