Shop for desktops

Small form factor

Apple Mac Mini

All-in-one

HP TouchSmart IQ770

Living room-friendly case

Velocity Micro Cinemagix Grand Theater

Midtower case

eMachines T5062

Full-tower case

Falcon Northwest Mach V

Processor

The brains of any PC is the CPU, or central processing unit. It is the single most important component of a desktop PC. Generally speaking, the faster the processor speed the better your performance, but once you really start to look into the complex world of CPUs, you'll realize that determining which CPU is the best for you is a little more complicated than merely counting gigahertz. For one, of the two major PC chip players, AMD and Intel, AMD's chips feature lower clock speeds than similarly performing Intel chips. And secondly, most new mainstream and high-end PCs come with dual-core or increasingly quad-core chips in them, meaning multiple processing brains on one physical piece of silicon.

If that seems like more CPU than you need, don't worry, dual-core PCs are still affordable, and they're becoming the norm. eMachines' $500 T5230 is a dual-core system, and we've seen plenty of others in the same price range. And it's a good thing, too, because dual-core chips are good at multitasking, processing digital media, and taking care of all the other modern tasks for which we use computers. And Windows Vista benefits particularly from a dual-core chip, as it's been written specifically with them in mind.

Right now, the superior chip technology comes from Intel, in the form of its new Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad processors. Thanks to recent price cuts, AMD's competing Athlon 64 X2 chips also offer strong performance for the dollar. In PCs under $1,000, as long as you have a Core 2 Duo or an Athlon 64 X2, that's about all you need to look for. Any more expensive than that and in most cases you're going to want to go with an Intel processor.

For more information on AMD's and Intel's processors, see our CPU roadmap story.

Memory

The amount and type of memory you choose goes a long way toward dictating your system's level of overall performance. Microsoft recommends a minimum of 512MB to run Windows Vista, but we think doubling that amount is well worth the added expense. Memory isn't nearly as expensive as it once was, which makes going with at least 1GB the right decision for most PC buyers.

Written in one of two ways, memory speed is referred to by the speed in which it communicates with the CPU (400MHz, for example) or by its data bandwidth (3.2GB per second or PC3200).

For the most part, you'll find two different types of memory in new systems: DDR SDRAM and DDR2 SDRAM. Older AMD Athlon-based systems support only DDR (without tweaking), generally running 400MHz. You might see some configurations with 333MHz memory, but they're likely bottom-of-the-barrel systems. All current Intel CPU-supporting chipsets, as well as the Socket AM2 chipsets for AMD's chips, support more-advanced DDR2 memory, which can run at 533MHz, 667MHz, or higher. You can also find brand new DDR3 on the market, but it's so new that it's exceedingly expensive right now. We don't expect you will want to consider DDR3 if you're buying a new PC this year.

Integrated graphics

Integrated graphics chips will suffice for basic computing tasks. If you aren't a gamer or a creative professional and you are looking for a computer for e-mailing friends and family, surfing the Web, and creating the occasional Word doc, you need not pony up for a dedicated graphics card. Below are some of the current types of integrated graphics chips you'll find in lower end PCs.

Discrete graphics

For the consumer graphics market, two companies maintain an overwhelming share of the market: ATI and Nvidia. Each company has offerings for every segment of the graphics market. You'll find plenty of older cards still available at retail, some of which might even be good deals if the price is right. Below is a list of the most recent chip releases from ATI and Nvidia.

Home theater video

A video card may benefit your PC-based, video-watching habit by improving the image quality a bit, but the real bonus of integrating your PC into your home-entertainment stack occurs when you use it as a digital video recorder and an all-around universal entertainment center. Thanks to Windows Vista's built in Media Center software (in Home Premium and Ultimate, at least), the gradual addition of HDMI output to video cards, PC compatible Blu-ray and HD DVD drives, and PC-based CableCard, your PC can now perform almost every home entertainment task as well as a tower of traditional home theater components. Just know that it's not cheap, and you sometimes have to work for it.

The biggest trouble spot right now is PC-based CableCard. CableCard-equipped PCs. can decrypt a digital cable signal, which is a major step up from the old analog TV tuner cards. But because CableCard will let you only receive a signal, not transmit one, you still can't use interactive menus or select Pay-Per-View programs. We've also had difficulty getting them to work--at least in New York. We expect we'll still see analog TV tuners for a while as well, because, unlike CableCard, you can add a standard TV tuner card to any PC with an available PCI slot. CableCard requires a complicated certification process that's only available to complete PCs sold from the traditional system vendors.

The other thing to think about is HDCP compliance. In order to play protected HD content from your PC, every link in the PC video-processing chain needs to adhere to the HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection) standard. Usually if there's a problem it's in your display, but you should also make sure that any standalone video card you purchase is HDCP-compliant (usually written on the box). All of ATI's and Nvidia's new graphics cards (the Radeon 2000's and the GeForce 8000's, respectively) meet this requirement, so as long as you stay current, you shouldn't have a problem.

Hard drives

Hard Drive

Following the proliferation of digital media content has been an increase in hard drive size. Only four or five years ago, a 2GB hard drive wasn't unusual, whereas the smallest drive you'll find on a PC sold today is 100GB. For mainstream PCs, the norm is a 250GB or 300GB drive. Power users such as DV editors who need to store large video files can opt for a 400GB or 500GB hard drive or two, all the way up to 2TB (that's terabytes). Most desktop drives spin at 7,200rpm--the faster a drive spins, the faster you can access its data--and both Western Digital and Seagate have come out with 10,000rpm drives, though their storage capacity is somewhat limited at 150GB.

Optical drives

Optical drive

Like CD burners of a few years ago, DVD burners have finally come down in price. We're almost to the point where DVD burners are universal because they've become so affordable. Choosing a DVD burner used to be complicated, thanks to competing DVD-recordable formats, but it's now much simpler, thanks to the dawn of the dual-layer, multiformat drive, which can use virtually every type of DVD media. You won't find every budget PC with a DVD burner (in which case you should at least get a 52X CD-RW drive); every system that does have one should be multiformat. If a system you're looking at has an old DVD+ or DVD- specific drive, skip it.

Blu-ray and HD DVD: The new optical generation

Blu-ray and HD-DVD are primarily referred to in terms of set-top boxes for watching prerecorded video discs (the PlayStation 3 game console also sports a Blu-ray drive), but both formats are also available to PC users, and have some promising potential as storage mediums.

Sony's Blu-ray drives are capable of storing 25GB of data (or 50GB on dual-layer discs). HD DVD was developed by Toshiba, and its discs store 15GB of data (30GB on dual-layer discs). By comparison, a typical single-layer DVD is 4.7GB. We're also starting to see combination drives that incorporate both Blu-ray and HD DVD capabilities.

Blank media is expensive, around $15 per disc, and burning speeds are stuck at 2X for the current generation, so it may be some time before one of these two competing formats becomes a clear winner in the public eye. Prices will drop eventually, but for now, expect to pay a hefty premium for adding one of these drives to your system--an IDE Blu-ray burner can cost upward of $750.

USB and FireWire

Unless you're particularly attached to an ancient printer, you need not concern yourself with legacy ports, such as serial and parallel connections, though they are still being supported by the majority of today's motherboards. USB has replaced these slower ports for connecting printers and other devices, such as digital cameras, MP3 players, and handhelds. Many mice and keyboards also use a USB connection instead of the old PS/2 port. At 480Mbps, the newer USB 2.0 offers 40 times the speed of USB 1.1. With so many USB devices out there, we suggest you settle for a minimum of four USB 2.0 ports, and you shouldn't have to look too hard to find six or eight, with a couple of them conveniently located on the front panel.

Audio and video ports

Many systems have a blue VGA port that's integrated to the motherboard and accessible on the back panel for connecting the PC to a CRT monitor or an analog LCD. If the system has a graphics card, the card will offer this same port, while some graphics cards will also furnish you with a white DVI connection (possibly two) for digital LCDs. If you want to connect your PC to your TV, you'll need a system with an S-Video port, unless your TV has an HDMI input, in which case you can purchase a DVI-to-HDMI adapter. A few video cards also come with HDMI ports built in. This new standard hasn't really hit the desktop in great quantities yet, but we suspect that it's only a matter of time.

Getting online

For connecting to the Internet, it's simple. If you are stuck with dial-up service (or you just love to fax), you'll need a modem port. Sometimes referred to as an RJ-11 port, this is integrated to some motherboards and, at other times, provided by an expansion card. For broadband, you'll need an Ethernet port. More often than not, you'll find this integrated to the motherboard; if it's not, look for it as an option listed as a network interface card or NIC. Recently, we've seen some systems that contain an integrated wireless receiver. Although your desktop will still need at least one wire (the power cord), integrated wireless functionality means that you will be able to easily add your new PC to your wireless home network.

Monitor

The price of LCDs has dropped so low that we no longer recommend purchasing an old-school CRT monitor. For help deciding on which LCD to buy, read CNET's monitor buying guide.

Keyboard/mouse

The wireless revolution has spread to keyboards and mice. Now you can find wireless varieties of each, often powered by rechargeable batteries. Obviously, these devices will cut down on the dreaded mess of wires that can entangle your desktop, and they also give you more freedom of movement than their wired counterparts. We don't love the idea of wireless mice and keyboards in the living room, since with the right software and remote-control combination your entertainment commands should be simple. But even on your desktop, the fewer cables the better.

For the latest in mice, keyboard, and joysticks, read CNET's input device roundup.

Printers

Many vendors offer a discount on a printer when you choose to bundle it with your PC, and in some cases, companies will throw one in for free. For help finding the right printer, visit CNET's printer buying guide.

Many companies will offer extensions up to three additional years for an added cost. Whether it's worth it to tack on another year or two depends on your comfort level with making repairs yourself (or letting a friend or relative inside the case) and how much you spent on the system. For an experienced user buying a budget system, an additional $149 for a second year of coverage probably isn't money well spent.

Many problems can be fixed simply by looking at the included manual or by skimming a company's online-support pages. In our reviews, we try to give you an idea of how extensive the help information is with both printed and online resources.

For more information on hardware warranties, please see CNET's quick guide to winning the warranty game.