I paid a visit to my old office last week, a small publishing company that produces a guitar magazine and a violin magazine. I used to work at the latter.

What struck me the most as I walked through the office wasn't the sight of my old compatriots, rather, it was the sea of desktop PCs the company still uses.

Now that I namely cover large enterprises, I've come accustomed to running into notebook PCs working as desktop replacements.

That's what we use here at eWEEK, and it's true, the portability of having a laptop as my desktop PC lets me work effectively from home, on the road, etc.

The reason all this is so fresh on my brain is I've just polished up a lengthy feature on best practices for buying laptops.

Given the amount of ink I could give such a feature, the piece does generalize a lot of areas and doesn't necessarily zero in on specific notebooks, nor does it target small to medium-sized business as much.

You can check out my recent review on Toshiba's Satellite Pro A210 to get more specifics on the pros and cons of purchasing this sub-$1,000 notebook: a good option for smaller businesses.

Now, most enterprises order notebooks in such large quantities, the vendor is most likely going to cut a handsome deal that will push the prices under $1,000, even on notebooks that wouldn't necessarily retail at that amount.

So, if you are a small to mid-size business that might not be outfitting your entire staff with notebook PCs, leaving you to pick and choose what you want out of your notebook, sub-$1,000 notebooks can be a great option to consider.

I think you'll find, however, the bulk of the suggestions that appear in the feature are general enough to fit every business' notebook needs.

For instance, no matter how good the bargain is, don't choose a notebook that goes below 2GB or RAM, such as Fujitsu's Lifebook s7211.

Other highlights from the feature is taking a good hard look at our extended warranty. You do have one of those, right? And you made sure it covers you when you are out of the country, yes?

What about native serial ports? Guess what, a lot of notebook makers are going without these ports, but if you are, say, in the telecommunications industry, than you better make sure your notebook PCs got them.

And while it's good to get the basics, it is of the utmost importance that as an IT manager, you pay close attention to some of those bells and whistles your employees might need.

This feature does tend to err on the side of conservatism, but that isn't to say companies, especially those in the tech sector, shouldn't be afraid to be more aggressive in selecting their company's notebook PCs.

For instance, I just got in the much-awaited Toshiba Portege R500, the 1.72-pound notebook with a 64GB solid state drive. This unit retails in the ballpark of $2,700 and isn't for everyone, but might be a no-brainer for one company executive.

For those daring dogs, you'll enjoy the accompanying sidebar that looks at a few emerging technologies you'll probably want to get your hands on before the year's end.