Gygas-
I did my first Test E cycle a year and a half ago and I started my 2nd yesterday. My first was the typical 500mg a week for 10 weeks, this one I'm just up'ing to 600mg/week.
Would you mind posting all your diet, stats, etc? I think we can help you more in terms of dose if we had all that.. Your post cycle too.
Anyways, I have friends who sometimes do 250mg/week and they say they notice an increase initially around week 5 but then it sort of levels out and you stop gaining size. You do however get pretty good strength increases all the way through, but it isn't a HUGE difference apparently.
Why don't you want to do 500mg? It isn't unbearable or anything and it's really effective.. I figure if you're gonna mess around with your body you might as well do it right and get something out of it.