For the budget-conscious home-based business owner who doesn’t want to sacrifice performance to get a good deal, Xavier Lanier, publisher of Notebooks.com suggests a Dell Vostro 1510. The base package is priced at around $500 (plus another few hundred if you want the Productivity Package or the XP and Security Package). Thinner and lighter than some of Dell’s previous small-business laptops, the Vostro 1510 offers a super-powered antenna, which is designed to eliminate (or at least greatly reduce) dropped signals with both Bluetooth and WiFi. You won’t lack connectivity with this machine, as it offers four USB ports, jacks for microphones and headphones, an Ethernet port, media card readers, and more. Users who do a lot of photo or video editing (or enjoy online gaming in their downtime) will probably want to upgrade to the optional Nvidia 8400M graphics card. Don’t like Windows Vista? Add another $99 to the bottom line for Windows XP.