It is spring, the weather is improving, the birds are singing, love is in the air, and young minds turn to the purchase of a new desktop computer. We’ll maybe not but it is a good time to buy because prices have never been lower and the next real bargains probably won’t appear until just before September. This is because we are getting into graduation, bonus time, and tax refund time where people take the money that should probably go into savings and buy high ticket items. Fortunately for the PC industry a lot of what is purchased are PCs.

Personally I’m a bigger fan of laptop PCs then desktop machines but desktops do have a number of advantages. They tend to be more secure (stolen less often), they are more reliable, you aren’t motivated to take them with you on vacation, and they provide substantially more performance then their laptop counterparts. Oh, and you can upgrade them at a component level, where with a laptop you generally have to replace the whole thing. Cheaper, faster, more reliable, and more future proof all go to the reason why desktop computers are 70% of the market.

The High End – Machines to Lust After

At the high end the hands down choice is the Dell XPS desktop. This product which is positioned much like the Corvette is in the GM automotive line has many of the performance values of vastly more expensive custom machines but carries a price that is vastly more reasonable. Tied to Dell’s 24” high performance monitor you are still talking a price point of around $3K but the end result is stunning and you certainly get what you paid for. By itself the XPS starts at a reasonable $1.6K. For the power gamer the high end version sets the bar and it is closer to $2.5K and even if you don’t end up buying one, it is worth going to the Dell kiosk just to see what the top of the chart has to offer.

Media Center

Media Center PCs are targeted at those that want to share their media broadly around the home and they have the most accessories of any PC type. While they can come with tuners, this year marks the first year where they don’t and, unless you have basic cable or use an antenna I’d suggest you forgo the tuner and get a lower cost product that doesn’t have one.

HP is the leader in the Media Center space and they have the most compelling line by far in it. Expect to pay under $1,200 for a balanced HP Media (m7070n) Center PC without a monitor. You can then extend the media around the home with media extenders and HP is the only vendor that sells both a Media Center PC and media extenders. HP also has printers and cameras that tie to this platform well making them both the best Media Center supplier and the best supplier of accessories for the Media Center...

Value PCs

Here Gateway eMachines sets the bar. Currently eMachines is rated one of the most reliable brands of PCs and they cover the low end of the market like a blanket. Gateway which had been having problems a little over a year ago has emerged from the eMachines merger as more of a Super eMachines with virtually none of the staffing and execution problems that Gateway enjoyed. At the sub $600 price points where products from this vendor thrives you can get some relatively high performance AMD based hardware at incredibly aggressive prices and this is likely where you true bargain hunters should start.

Basic Configurations

Starting from the minimums you should get a system with at least 512M of memory (there are some low ball products with 128M and they are horrible performers), 40 GB hard drive, and a DVD/CDR-RW combo drive. Graphics at the low end is typically on the motherboard and fine, if you decide to buy up make sure you do a little bit of reading on the cards because performance can change dramatically version to version. Currently I like ATI better in desktop and NVIDIA better in laptop computers but this clearly changes quarter over quarter.

Monitors

You can now buy 17” flat panel monitors for well under $300 with rebate. Currently Acer dominates this space and they have one of the strongest monitor lines, however the branded hardware OEMs, Sony, and Samsung also have strong offerings. For gaming it is hard to beat the Samsung products with 8ms response times, for general work use the vastly less expensive monitors with 25ms response times provide a better value. Be aware that monitors that double as TVs generally have sharply lower performance and should be avoided for general desktop and especially for gaming use whenever possible. The Dell mentioned above is the reference for gaming monitors and you should pick a value monitor based on how good it looks to you in the showroom. Be aware that Monitor prices are expected to drop another 25% before year end and while I think that may be a little extreme, it does suggest that if you can wait you should.

Places to Shop

Regardless of what you end up with you can see some of this stuff in person before you buy. Dell has kiosks in many large shopping malls and Best Buy does the best job of showcasing hardware from a variety of vendors and making recommendations on which hardware is best for you. They are also good at up-selling (which could result in your buying more then you need) so resist that and use this opportunity to kick the tires and get a sense for what it is you really want before giving up your hard earned cash.

Good luck shopping and, if you have a quick question feel free to drop me a note at renderle@enderlegroup.com.