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Desktops
By Matt Elliott, Senior editor
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Sure, it's the thought that counts, but if you're buying a desktop for someone special this holiday season, memory, peripherals, warranties, and expandability count a little more. Don't disappoint Rosa with a subpar system or blow a wad of cash on a PC that's too powerful for Grandma. Before you go to the store or online to compare configurations, check out these invaluable shopping tips.
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Don't leave them singing the configuration blues. Most PC vendors will let you customize a system online these days. While choice is good, it can also get you in trouble if you don't know what you're doing. Before you buy, make sure you know what to look for in a desktop and avoid such mistakes as pairing slower memory with your chipset or bundling surround-sound speakers without the requisite audio inputs.
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Don't buy just a PC. With Microsoft's new and improved Media Center OS, the PC takes on new and interesting personalities. Perfect for sprucing up a dorm room or a studio apartment, a Media Center PC saves students and young professionals valuable living space by doubling as a television (with TiVo-like features for pausing and recording live TV). If you can't decide whether your kid needs a TV or a PC, you can get them both in one package with a Media Center PC.
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Don't duplicate peripherals. If you can hear the walls rattle in little James's room upstairs during his marathon gaming sessions, chances are he doesn't need a new set of speakers with his new PC. Same goes for the enormous CRT monitor glowing in the corner of his room. If he is so equipped, you need not gift-wrap peripherals with that new system. If a new PC isn't in the budget this year, perhaps a new graphics card will do the trick.
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Don't get an expensive gaming system for Grandma. Unless your grandma returns from the early-bird special to spend her evening hours blowing away monsters in Doom, odds are she doesn't need a $3,000 PC. For a fraction of the cost, you can get her a fully capable desktop for sending e-mail and looking at pictures of her grandkids. We suggest you check out our desktop buying guide before you start configuring a system for her or anyone else, for that matter.
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Don't avoid asking the geek. The opposite holds true for the nephew who spends most of his free time in front of a PC. All that PC time probably hasn't helped his complexion any, but it certainly has taught him a thing or two about computers. So don't make the mistake of getting him something he (or worse, his friends) will find uncool. Unless you feel comfortable (that is, geeky) enough to power shop for the latest gear, go ahead and spoil the surprise by feeling out his preferences. He'll have no trouble telling you which graphics card he must have.
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Don't ignore the warranty. Give the gift that keeps on giving: a strong warranty. If your PC gift's intended recipient isn't a do-it-yourselfer, then services such as 24/7 toll-free phone support and onsite service will be welcome, in addition to a warranty that lasts longer than the one-year industry average.
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Don't forget the memory. Memory is one of the most important factors in overall system performance. These days, the bare minimum you should choose is 512MB of DDR SDRAM, though we'd advise getting at least 1,024MB for gaming-oriented PCs.
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Don't overlook future-proofing the graphics. Putting a PC with integrated graphics under the tree will suffice for many users, but should little Jane develop a sudden interest in gaming, having an AGP or a PCI-Express slot on the motherboard is invaluable. Without it, she'll be stuck with second-rate graphics and won't be able to later upgrade to an advanced graphics card that's capable of rendering the gory scenes of today's 3D games.
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Don't get burned by recordable-DVD formats. If your intended recipient is often seen with a camcorder in hand, then his or her PC must have a DVD burner. You can cut through the recordable-DVD format wars by choosing a multiformat drive such as Plextor's Editors' Choice award-winning PX-708A drive. It writes to both +R and -R discs at a speedy 8X. You might think about a double-layer DVD recorder, but with an absence of blank media and the technology still working its way through a few early kinks, we'd put those drives on the "upgrades to make later" list.
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Don't let software slip your mind. Are you getting a new PC for Dad to help cut back on the anguished cries emanating from his home office each time that old, dusty PC crashes? Then be sure to include a productivity suite such as Microsoft Works with the system. It's undoubtedly better than what he's using now, and most PC vendors offer a discount if you purchase the software with a PC rather than buying it separately.
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