Back-to-school sales offer a great opportunity to pick up a computer. These sales typically start on July 5 and continue on through early September.

If your idea of a back-to-school sale involves clothing, pencils, pens, and notebooks...well, today the "notebooks" are more likely to refer to a notebook computer than to the kind you write in!

Promo pricing makes this an especially good time to buy a laptop. The price point is still around $399 as it was last summer, but what you get for that price has improved greatly since last year. In addition, you typically won't have to jump through hoops for a rebate just to get a price of around $399.

Beware that Macs, however, are still just as pricey as ever -- including the very popular MacBook Air.

This year, the choices are more confusing in the PC world. You can either get a full-size 15-inch laptop or a mini-laptop that weighs about 2 pounds with a 9-inch screen.

The mini-laptops should go for between $400 and $600. Asus, Dell, HP, Acer and Everex all make their own versions.

Whatever you do, don't let the salespeople con you into buying an expensive laptop for $1,000 or more -- unless you're looking for a Mac. You can get all the functionality you're likely to want at around $399.