In the wake of Christmas, I ended up taking my Christmas money (and my personal savings) and purchasing a new laptop.  I got a pretty good value thanks to the lingering Christmas sales, yet I still spent a pretty penny on my brand-new Alienware netbook.  However, not everyone has a significant amount of money to spend on laptops.  Fortunately, the fine folks at Gizmodo have put together a list of great under $500 laptops.

Some people say that, when you buy a computer, you get what you pay for.  I don’t believe that.  I’ve had bargain-basement refurbished desktops that performed wonderfully, and I’ve had expensive computers that have been temperamental at best.  Still, when I buy a laptop, I tend to pay more just because I want to make sure it is as future-proof as possible; when it comes to desktops, I haven’t been as picky.

A lot of the mileage you get out of your computer depends on how the user uses the thing, and what they do to maintain it properly.  For example, the HP machine listed at Giz?  That’s a solid value, and it’s something I would actually consider purchasing for myself (if I needed a laptop, which I don’t).