desktops

Does it make sense to buy a PC with a touch screen?

Smartphones with touch screens? Great! Tablets with touch screens? Duh. But PCs with touch screens? Meh.

Recently I purchased a Lenovo IdeaPad U310 ultrabook, my first-ever touch-screen-equipped computer. I didn't necessarily want the feature, but figured I might as well give Windows 8 the benefit of the doubt. It was, after all, designed to be touched -- which explains why using it with a mere mouse and keyboard is such a dreadful experience. Plus, it was priced only about 50 bucks higher than its non-touch-screen sibling.

Having worked with the system for a couple weeks now, I'm ready … Read more

CrashPlan for Mac 3.5.2 Review

Finding outside storage to back up computer files is critical in the event of a technical problem. CrashPlan for Mac is a well-designed program and cloud service that performs its function as a data storage application.

CrashPlan for Mac is available as a free application, but the cloud backup service is free for 30 days. After that time, users must sign up for a subscription service based on the amount of storage needed and the number of computers they'd like to run the app on. The program's native installer quickly set up the program. The program's main … Read more

Get an HP quad-core desktop for $399.99

Message received loud and clear: You folks still love desktops! I'll definitely add more to the rotation as I find them. In fact, yesterday's deal was so popular it sold out, so I'm following up with another today.

Available until midnight (ET), and while supplies last, Sellout.Woot has the refurbished HP Pavilion P7-1447C quad-core desktop for $399.99, plus $5 for shipping.

That's a full $200 less than yesterday's Dell. So, how do the two systems compare? This one's a refurb, so it has only a 90-day warranty. I've had extremely good … Read more

Get a decked-out Dell desktop for $599.99

Laptops, ultrabooks, and tablets are all well and good if you're a mobile person -- or you have a small desk -- but if you want serious horsepower for things like games, video editing, 3D modeling, and big ol' CAD drawings, your best bet is usually a desktop.

A desktop also gives you a lot more expansion options, whether it's adding a second hard drive or swapping in the latest and greatest video card. Something to consider.

For a limited time, and while supplies last, DealFisher has the Dell XPS 8500 desktop for $599.99, shipped. It is … Read more

Windows 8.1 'boot to desktop' rumor: Wishful thinking?

A Windows 8.1 option to boot to desktop? That seductive rumor has been making the rounds over the weekend.

What could be a reflection of wishful thinking, a post at WinBeta (via Neowin), cites a Russian-language Web site as the source.

Apparently, there is Windows 8.1 code that disables the Metro Start Screen and sends you "to the desktop automatically."

That is a feature that more than a few Windows 8 users would undoubtedly take advantage of since the tiled Metro screen is of questionable utility for some.

Market researcher IDC, among others, has been making the case over the past month or so … Read more

Hardware vs. software: Playing the PC sales blame game

By now, anyone interested in the PC business has heard about the poor showing for global computer shipments in the first quarter of 2013. As noted here:

First-quarter global computer shipments dropped 14 percent from the previous year, said International Data Corp., much worse than its forecast for a 7.7 percent decline. The pullback marked the worst-ever quarter since IDC began tracking quarterly PC shipments in 1994, and it's the fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year shipment declines.

Some were quick to blame Windows 8, which launched in October 2012, while others pointed to everything from the increasing popularity … Read more

Moody Desktop Review

Deciding on a wallpaper to decorate your computer can be a tall order. Moody Desktop takes the work out of choosing by assigning you a new wallpaper, automatically. You can adjust the timer, how the wallpaper is laid out, and more. The lack of wallpaper options to choose from is definitely noticeable, though.

This download cycles through about 30 preset wallpapers that are all quite pleasing to the eye. While that's only a fraction of what other programs offer, it's nice that these landscapes are all G-rated. It means that no scantily-clad women or gruesome war scenes will … Read more

Seagate ships 4TB Desktop HDD

Seagate announced today the shipment of its 4TB Desktop HDD 3.5-inch internal hard drive for general consumers. While this is not the first 4TB hard drive on the market, the company says it's the first that uses the 1TB-per-platter design. Basically, on the inside, the Desktop HDD comes with four platters (disks), each offering 1TB of storage space.

The Desktop HDD is also the first desktop internal drive from Seagate that uses the new streamlined naming convention. Seagate's consumer-grade hard drives were formerly called Barracuda. Earlier this year, the company also shipped the first hybrid drive of … Read more

Take OneLoupe around your desktop for a squint-free view

Maybe you have a junk drawer, possibly in the kitchen, full of various tools, implements, and odds and ends. One of the things we would expect to see in such a drawer is a magnifying glass, especially if there are other things we hope to see but can't without first magnifying the view. The same goes for Windows: not the glass kind but the software kind. With super-huge LCD screens displaying super-high-resolution images, sooner or later even eagle-eyed PC users have to squint; and if your vision isn't what it once was, the problem is worse. It's … Read more