Best Cyber Monday deals on laptops, desktops and more

With the year’s busiest shopping day out of the way, we now turn to Cyber Monday, where those prefer to avoid in-store insanity get their chance to snag some sweet deals online.

Although retailers would have you believe that the best deals on laptops, desktops, and PC gear could only be had on Black Friday, we’ve scoured the web and determined otherwise.

Here are the best Cyber Monday PC deals we could find. Let’s start with a great laptop deal at Best Buy.

Specs: a 14-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel) touch display, an Intel Core i3-3217U processor (third-generation), 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive with 32GB SSD cache, 3 USB ports (2 USB 3.0), a card reader, HDMI out, weighs 4.7 pounds and measures 0.9 inches thick.

Description: This is a great price for a touchscreen Windows 8 laptop.

Just don’t be fooled by the “Ultrabook” label on Best Buy’s website; it’s not a tank, but it’s thicker and heavier than most Ultrabooks, despite the lack of an optical drive. [More info]

Specs: 2TB of storage, 5 Gbps transfer via USB 3.0, 480 Mbps via USB 2.0, Windows and Mac compatibility. Dimensions: 0.8 inches by 3.2 inches by 4.4 inches.

Description: For a pocket-sized external hard drive, this is as spacious as it gets.

It earned four stars in PCWorld’s review, which noted that this WD device isn’t the most stylish portable drive, but it offers good performance, helpful software, and a massive amount of storage. [More info]

Description: Microsoft’s Arc Touch is cleverly-designed travel mouse that snaps flat from its arched position for easier storage in a bag.

The Arc Touch Mouse has built-in storage for its USB receiver and, although it doesn’t support touch gestures like some newer mice do, it does have a touch-sensitive scroll tab between its two buttons.

Most retailers sell the Arc Touch for $40, so it’s a Cyber Monday steal at half the price. [More info]

Specs: a14-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel resolution) LCD display, video and power through USB. Weighs 2.6 pounds and measures 13.4 inches by 9.4 inches by 0.6 inches.

Description: If you’ve got a multi-monitor setup at home and suffer from screen withdrawal on the road, you can take Toshiba’s extra display with you and power it through your laptop’s USB port.

At half-price, this is a great Cyber Monday deal. Note: You must use the coupon code “MMBF” at checkout. [More info]

Specs: a 15.6-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel display), an AMD A6-4455M processor, Radeon HD 7500G graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, 3 USB ports (2 USB 3.0), a card reader, HDMI out, Beats Audio, weighs 4.75 pounds and measures 0.78 inches thick.

Description: For a 15.6-inch laptop, this is still a pretty thin and light machine, and the promise of 9-hour battery life makes it even more portable.

The integrated Radeon graphics provide some of the benefits of discrete graphics cards as well, so this machine should have some light gaming capabilities. [More info]

Specs: an Intel Core i5-3450 processor, AMD Radeon 6670 graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive

Description: For just under $600, you can have a nice little PC gaming rig.

It won’t max out graphics settings, especially at high-resolutions, but should be just fine for 720p fragging, and the price is right. [More info]

Specs: a 13.3-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel) display, an Intel Core i5-3317U processor (third-generation), Intel HD graphics, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive with 24GB solid state, 3 USB ports (2 USB 3.0), a card reader, HDMI, weighs 3.7 pounds and measures 0.71 inches thick.

Description: Lenovo’s low-end Ultrabook only earned 3 stars in PCWorld’s review, but an excellent trackpad and solid performance make it worth considering, especially at a $150 discount. [More info]

Specs: a 14-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel) display, an Intel Core i7-2640M processor (second-generation), 8GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive, DVD, 3 USB ports (1 USB 3.0), a ,,card reader, HDMI, weighs 4.9 pounds and measures 1.1 inches thick.

Description: Though it’s not the most stylish laptop, this Asus still packs a powerful processor, lots of RAM, and even more storage than your average sub-$400 machine.

The U46 also has an 8-cell battery, promising eight hours on a charge. It’s a nice pickup if you need an all-purpose laptop for cheap. [More info]

Specs: a 15.6-inch (1366-pixel-by-768-pixel) display, an Intel Core i7-3630QM processor (third-generation), Intel HD graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 750GB hard drive, DVD, 4 USB (3 USB 3.0), a card slot, HDMI, weighs 5.66 pounds and measures 1.16 inches thick.

Description: HP offers $170 off the starting price for this powerful laptop, so you can boost the specs or add discrete graphics as needed.

That’s already a decent deal, so the free Nook Simple Touch e-reader on top is just icing, even though it’s not the newer Glowlight version. [More info]

Specs: an Intel Atom dual-core processor, Nvidia Ion 2 graphics, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, a Blu-ray player, 3 USB ports (2 USB 3.0), a card reader, HDMI and DVI out.

Description: This home theater PC doesn’t come with an operating system, so users will have to buy a copy of Windows or load a free Linux-based OS such as Ubuntu.

[More Info]

Still, for those who like to tinker, this is great price on a living-room box with a built-in Blu-ray player when factoring in its $30 mail-in rebate.

Specs: a 23-inch 1080p touch display, an Intel Core i7-3770s processor, Intel HD graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, DVD, wireless b/g/n, Bluetooth, Ethernet.

[Product info]

Description: If you’ve had your eye on a touch screen all-in-one PC with Windows 8, now’s a good time to jump in.

[Dell Cyber Monday Deals]

This deal gives you a high-end processor, plenty of RAM, and a nicely-sized hard drive. Note: This deal begins at 9 p.m. EDT time on Monday.

Check out our slider on the best Cyber Monday HDTV deals.