You want a cheap laptop for work and personal use but don't want to spend an arm and a leg. While average laptop prices have been dropping dramatically over the years (reaching an all-time low of $407 in November 2011 for Windows notebooks, according to market research firm NPD), do a search for "cheap laptops" and you'll generally find netbooks (which are okay for work but not exactly ideal) or a confusing array of other laptops which may be poorly made or underpowered. Don't worry, there really are laptops out there for about $400 with decent specs, performance, and quality build.

I've rounded up five of those inexpensive laptops under $500--ones that have earned great reviews from professional laptop reviewers and consumers too. Two of them in particular I would lean towards myself--the HP ProBook 4530s and the Lenovo ThinkPad E420, both of them because they are built for business users and I'm biased towards business grade laptops. My previous experience in testing ProBooks have been positive and I've also always been a big fan of ThinkPads (especially their meticulous attention to keyboard design).

However, if you're looking for the best deal right now, the HP Pavilion g6t is on sale for 25% off--priced at $375 until February 12. It includes a free upgrade to 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive, plus free shipping and you can configure it some more if you like. You'll need to use the coupon code SAVE25HP to grab the laptop deal and you can also use a $50 stackable coupon: NBJ5867 (via LogicBuy and Laptop).

I don't think you can go wrong if you're looking for a decent laptop for everyday computing with one of those five laptops. If you know of any others, let us know in the comments.

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Dropbox

Dropbox, one of the best free file syncing and online storage services, is offering a massive 5GB of free storage to customers who try out their latest photo and video automatic uploading feature. Here's how to get this free space on your account during this beta period (hurry):

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A laptop bag might not be as romantic as a bouquet of roses, but this is one modern accessory that both men and women can appreciate. The difference between a well-designed laptop bag--with quality stitching, comfortable straps, and lots of organization pockets--and a cheap one is huge. (So huge you feel the difference in your shoulders and your arms.) This Valentine's Day, consider giving someone special a bag to carry his or her laptop, phone, documents, and other everyday objects in style.

To help you find both a sturdy and attractive laptop bag, check out this gallery of women's laptop bags, top laptop bags for men, and, the ultimate laptop bag gift--one you can design yourself.

This cheap app lets you use your iPhone as a modem for your laptop for the one-time fee of $1.99, no monthly charges. You can grab QuasiDisk on iTunes now, but who knows for how long, as tethering apps have had a history of being pulled by Apple. The folks at TheNextWeb report it works with a fair amount of tweaking. So download it while you can.

Learn more about tethering and how to use your cell phone as a modem.