pc

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

When market analyst IDC last week noted the sharp 13.9 percent quarterly drop in worldwide PC sales, it placed much of the blame on the "radical" user interface changes of Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system.

"Microsoft will have to make some very tough decisions moving forward if it wants to help reinvigorate the PC market," Bob O'Donnell, IDC's program vice president for clients and displays, said in a statement.

Therein lies a core challenge for Microsoft. The software giant doesn't really have a plan B.

Microsoft can't undo the … Read more

PC sales are in the dumps, and not even a promising new chip from Intel may be enough to revive them, believes J.P Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

The computer industry took it on the chin yesterday after both IDC and Gartner revealed that first-quarter shipments reached their lowest point in years. IDC fingered Windows 8 for failing to pump up PC sales but also blamed the weak economy and consumer demand for smartphones and tablets.

PC makers have been awaiting the arrival of Intel's new Haswell chip, which promises higher performance and lower power consumption. As such, the … Read more

We recently complained about the lack of a single best-case gaming laptop for the Windows 8 era. That was largely because of the handful of portable PCs with higher-end graphics cards we'd reviewed in the six months since Microsoft's new OS took over, none thought to include a touch-screen display. That's a feature not particularly called for in even current-gen PC games, but it's one that Windows 8 practically begs for during the hours when you're not using your laptop for gaming.

Since then, we've finished reviews of a couple more gaming laptops -- … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- EA awarded "Worst Company in American History" for second consecutive year.

- Next Xbox won't be backward-compatible, report says.

- CNET How-to: How to make a video game patchbay.

- Warner Bros. Montreal developing Arkham City prequel starring "unrefined" Batman: Arkham Origins.

- 404 news: We're starting to break segments out into shorter clips that are easier to share. Help us blast these out to your friends, won't you? The first one is our report on the list of NSFW movies the Vatican is watching right now!… Read more

At some point, you've probably considered hooking your computer up to your TV. Maybe you even purchased a video cable, only to realize that being hunched over your computer and tethered to the TV is far from the awesome setup you had in mind.

Hooking up your computer to your TV can be as simple or as complex as you want. A basic setup lets you stream the occasional Web video, while a more advanced rig lets you access movie and music files from computers across your home network.

But the most brag-worthy home theater PCs (HTPCs) include all … Read more

In the sea of PC optimization software, it can be hard to find the right set of tools to keep your computer in tip-top shape. Luckily, TuneUp Utilities is here. A 16-year veteran in the field of Computer Cleanup, TuneUp offers the latest revision of their famous TuneUp Utilities 2013, with some new tools and major fixes that promise to improve the performance of any PC. The best part is that TU gives you full functionality with the 15-day trial.

TuneUp Utilities installation is relatively painless while taking up no more than 80MB of disk space. The program does require … Read more

commentary Back in 2011, Hewlett-Packard's chairman Ray Lane was photographed using an Apple MacBook Air as he was trying to turn HP around. Personal preference speaks volumes about HP and the fate of the PC industry.

Lane stepped down today as chairman of HP just after, coincidentally, Gartner released a report forecasting dim prospects for the PC industry.

Things seem to get dimmer with each forecast, as the tablet -- which means Apple's iPad for the most part -- takes a bigger bite out of PC sales.

Here's what Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner, said … Read more