I bought a 60w laser from wklaser.com, seen here: http://wklaser.com/pro_179.aspx

On the whole, pretty happy with it. However, it has two gotchas that have grown very tiring:

1) the machine is supposed to talk directly to my pc so i can make tweaks on the fly. It doesn't. They offered to replace the controller if I sent it back, but that would cost me a couple weeks I can't afford.

2) the software is tired, buggy, and closed source. I want an open source alternative I can hack on.

My budget is <$500. Right now I'm thinking

DriveBoard DIY Pack
and
LasersaurBBB

What do you suggest?