Category: desktops

Question: I'm finally ready to move to Mac, especially with Apple's latest iMacs. I really like the design and simplicity. But which one should I get? I was thinking I should get the base model for $1199, but the big 27-incher is pretty tempting, too, even though it's another $500. Or should I spend the extra money and get the upgraded versions of the iMac? So confusing -- I thought Apple was ...

HP Touchsmart 300z (Novice, Under $2,500) HP's all-in-one desktop ($799 – $1,099, depending on the configuration) includes the specs you'd want for day-to-day computing: a 20-inch widescreen LCD, an AMD Athlon multi-core processor, 2-4-gigabytes (GB) of RAM and up to a 750 GB hard drive. But what separates the Touchsmart 300z from the pack is the user-friendly, iPhone-like touchscreen ...

Alienware Area 51 ALX Gaming PC (Gamer, Cost No Object) If you're trying to keep up with the Joneses in PC gaming, Alienware's Area 51 Gaming PC ($3,999 and up) is tough to beat. Housed inside one of the company's trademark love-'em-or-hate-'em "futuristic" cases, this rig is decked out with some of the best components money can buy: Intel Core i7 975 Extreme processors, your choice of ATI ...

One of the most important things everyone -- even Mac users -- needs to do with a computer is to make sure it is as secure from viruses, phishing scams, and other 'net threats as possible. No matter how often you practice safe browsing habits or think twice before clicking on a random link in your e-mail, you'd be surprised how often even the most cautious of folks can be caught off guard, which ...

Okay, this is our last post from that Vintage Computer Festival, we promise, but we thought there was something kind of beautiful about all those retro keyboards we saw, especially after seeing them through the lens of Matthew McMullen Smith's camera. Take a look at the gallery below and let us know if you agree. (We call first dibs on the all-turquoise and PET computer keyboards!) ...

Last week, we showed you the biggest exhibitions we saw at the Vintage Computer Festival East 2009. Still, we also became mildly obsessed with all the logos we saw on those retro PCs. So, we asked our photographer, Matthew McMullen Smith, to shoot some close-ups of as many retro logos (and vintage fonts) as he could find on the various restored computers that were on display. If you're a ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2009/09/24/vintage-computers-get-the-classic-car-treatment-at-vcf-east-6/'; We trekked down to the New Jersey shore a couple of weeks ago to attend the Vintage Computer Festival East 6.0, an annual gathering of serious computer enthusiasts who prepare and exhibit working, restored computers from '50s, '60s, '70s and very early '80s ("essentially nothing later ...

Question: I use my computer for most of my TV and movie watching and music listening, but my machine's built-in speakers sound bloody awful. I want a set of computer speakers that sounds good whether cranked up loud or turned down soft. And I don't want to spend a fortune. Advice: The underpowered speakers built into laptops and desktops can suck the life out of any video or song. They're too ...

Your hard drive is like your pet; if anything were to happen to it, you just don't know what you would do. And it doesn't help that it's constantly being attacked on all sides by viruses, breakdowns, and overheats. To help deal with the problem, Dell announced yesterday that it will be offering encrypted solid state drives (SSD) from Samsung in the coming months, making Dell one of the first ...

We rolled over to the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey last night for Acer's computer announcement extravaganza. The PC manufacturer announced brand new netbooks, laptops, and desktop lines under its eMachines, Gateway, and Acer brands. Considering the loads of new computer models flashing onto the giant IMAX screen overhead, all intercut with short IMAX clips driven by techno versions of ...

Wow. Things at Office Depot appear to be worse than we could have possibly thought. In fact, the alleged apparent systematic misleading of customers makes the shenanigans at BestBuy look quite tame by comparison. Laptop Mag has published a follow up to its initial report of employees being encouraged to lie to customers at Office Depot. It turns out that salespeople at other Office Depot ...

Surely you've seen the annoying ads on television or flashing banner graphics on your favorite sites advertising applications guaranteed to take your slow-as-molasses computer and make it run like new again? Hopefully you've never taken the plunge and clicked or installed, but Slate's Farhad Manjoo did. Out of curiosity, he installed My Faster PC just to see what it would do to his computer. As ...

With the recession pushing prices of everything down, and with low-priced netbooks' newfound popularity, the research firm IDC is reporting a much larger than normal drop in the average price of PCs. On average, computer prices drop about five-percent per year, but, in the fourth quarter of 2008, prices dipped a dramatic 14.3-percent. Only once before have prices of computers fallen faster; ...

We'd heard rumblings about computer upgrades from everyone's favorite Cupertino-based company, but we didn't expect anything this soon. This morning, Apple announced new updates across its desktop computer and router lines. Although there aren't any significant aesthetic changes or redesigns to the models, the Mac Pro, Mac mini, and iMac all received spec upgrades (e.g. faster chips, improved ...

Privacy is a funny thing, isn't it? These days, it's fairly common to update your Facebook page with your likes and dislikes, taste in music, contact information, personal photos and who knows what else. This is information we give out consciously and willingly, and it all says something about the types of people we are. But what are we unconsciously saying about ourselves when we use the ...