In my case, the laptops themselves were packaged nicely. A plastic dust bag around the laptop itself, two styrofoam blocks on the edges, and a relatively small cardboard box.

Everything else was ridiculous.

Another box about the same size that contained the six CDs, the power cord, and the flyer. There was far more cardboard in this one than for the laptop itself. There was also a piece of PE foam surrounding the tray that was supposed to hold the CDs, although the CDs were actually strewn about the box, more likely to be stuck under the tray than in it.

Then both of those boxes were put inside another box that was about half again too big, and that extra space was taken up by a cardboard space filler that was obviously designed for exactly that purpose. I suppose it's better than peanuts, but why not just make the box the right size to begin with? It's not as if it's providing crush protection to more than one side.