If not, can you save money by doing a deal? The same can apply to other peripherals such as a printer or scanner. Don't underestimate how much you'll need! Ensure you have enough room on your hard drive for all your current programs and files, as well as the fast-growing collection of videos and music that most people now tend to accumulate. Look for a 1TB HD as a starting point, but double that if you can. Hard drives can be up to 3—4TB.
Desktop tower models make it easy to add a relatively inexpensive extra internal hard drive down the line, or perhaps a super-speedy solid-state drive SSD for extra performance. This is your computer's brain. The number of cores, processing power and price range is a good indicator of the overall level of power on offer. Be careful comparing the Intel family of CPUs with those from AMD, its main competitor, as quoted speed figures aren't directly comparable.
Likewise with the sub-families of each brand — Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 and the latest M series processors are increasingly high-performance, even at the same quoted figure in GHz.
A lack of RAM will slow your computer when performing multiple or labour-intensive tasks, such as image processing. Entry-level and even some mid-range desktop computers may have the graphics processor built into the motherboard called onboard graphics , rather than on a separate dedicated graphics card.
While onboard graphics is generally adequate for most day-to-day tasks, high-end games and other graphics-intensive programs will benefit greatly from a dedicated graphics card which can also be upgraded down the track.
Certain high-end programs may require a dedicated graphics card to run. Check that it the computer has all the USB 3. Do you need to connect your other devices for example, external hard drive via different ports such as older and less-used FireWire , eSATA or Thunderbolt?
You may need to add in a specific card to support these. Skip to content Skip to footer navigation. Top of the content. Desktop and laptop computers. You also generally get more power per dollar spent with a desktop than you do with a laptop. Also, while all-in-ones where the screen and computer are a single unit are aesthetically pleasing and can take up less desk space, they can cost a lot more than buying a desktop computer and monitor separately.
And though the great Mac vs. Both have access to top-tier software, include robust anti-malware protection, and are easy to use: For instance, Google Chrome and Microsoft Word are basically the same on Macs and PCs.
That said, being able to pair a Mac with an iPhone or an Android phone with a PC could be too good to pass up.
Doing so would let you answer a text message with your keyboard and share copy-paste data between a computer and a smartphone. And those are just a few examples. For more, check our full computer ratings based on our latest tests results, available to Consumer Reports members.
And by the way, if you're looking for a bargain, eyeball our laptop, ChromeBook and Tablet guide to the best deals. Laptops let you use your computer away from your desk, but you pay for that mobility with keyboards that some consumers may find a little small, especially when it comes to laptops less than 13 inches wide. Laptops are also generally more difficult and expensive to repair than a desktop, in part because of their small size and specialized parts.
When it comes to laptops, screen size will be an essential factor in deciding which model is right for you. Nowadays, laptops generally come in a range of sizes. See our laptop ratings , available to CR members, for more information, and also see our most recent guidance on the best laptops of all sizes and processing levels. Battery life varies, but you should be able to get through at least a full workday nowadays.
Such a laptop can easily be a desktop replacement. Until a few years ago, only inch and larger models had graphics processors with dedicated video memory, but now some to inch models have them, making them suitable for editing video and gaming. Note, even if you're not into gaming or editing video, read our explainer on why you still might want a dedicated graphics processing unit on whatever you buy — and why it won't necessarily add much expense.
For folks who want to replace their desktop with a laptop that would sit semipermanently in one place but be portable enough to take from room to room, these laptops will deliver.
They tend to have higher-end components, too, offering lots of storage and performance to spare. Beyond performance, a larger screen can make it more comfortable to work on multiple windows or large spreadsheets or kill some time watching Netflix.
Lighter and less expensive than most laptops, these highly mobile devices offer an extra dose of portability and many—but certainly not all—of the features. Click here to check our computer ratings. Chromebooks use Chrome OS, an operating system developed by Google and whose user interface largely resembles the Chrome web browser. See the best Chromebooks in our ratings here. Chromebooks typically have smaller amounts of storage than other laptops, so consumers should be prepared to stream, instead of download, content like music and movies.
You need access to the internet to get the best work out of one of these machines, and store files in the cloud with services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Microsoft OneDrive. Laptops known as 2-in-1s either have a keyboard that can be bent around the back of the display or a keyboard that can be detached entirely.
These are called convertibles and detachables, respectively. They may be useful if you want to use your laptop in bed while holding it like a tablet to stream video, say or if you want to prop up the laptop like a "tent" to more easily show off the display to other people nearby.
You may even find scrolling through photos or merely swiping around the web to be easier than using a mouse and keyboard. For some, a tablet can take the place of a laptop. See our tablet buying guide for detailed information about shopping for one.
These machines are lightweight and highly portable. Their weight can vary between just less than a pound to about 1. In our tests, their batteries can last more than 10 hours per charge. For office productivity tasks, you can add a keyboard to many of them. Desktops typically offer a better bang for your buck compared with laptops, delivering more power and performance per dollar spent. You may not need a ton of power if, say, you spend most of the day inside office productivity software, but they often cost less.
Lastly, given the rise of video chatting, you may also need a standalone camera, since freestanding monitors typically don't come with one. See our desktop ratings , and monitor ratings , available to CR members, for more information.
Though they require a lot of room under or on top of your desk, full-sized desktops are the least expensive computers and the easiest to upgrade and repair. At less than half the size of full-sized desktops, compact or slim desktops are ideal if you lack space under your desk or if you plan to put the computer on your desk. All-in-one desktop computers, also known as "all-in-ones," combine the computer and monitor.
The components are tightly packed behind and underneath the display, making them difficult to upgrade or repair. Meant to be space-savers, they're also designed to look less stodgy than traditional computers. Information in this article applies broadly to all desktop computers, although it's more optimized for the Windows and Linux ecosystems instead of the Apple ecosystem.
Check individual product specifications before making a purchase. Ideal computer specifications are determined by your specific use case. For example, how fast your PC needs to be depends on what you plan to do with it. For a gaming PC , a fast processor and sufficient RAM as well as a powerful graphics card prove important. If you plan to use your computer for browsing the web and simple productivity tasks, such as word processing, then a lower-tier budget desktop should suffice. Intel processors generally offer better performance, but they are more expensive than AMD processors.
However, the main difference between processors relates to the number of cores they offer and their relative speed. Most manufacturers present a performance rating system for their desktop PCs, but comparing across brands isn't always easy.
Your best bet is to look for PCs in your price range and then research the processors to make sure they are powerful enough for your needs. The higher the RAM, the better the performance. Experts recommend at least 8 gigabytes of memory, but 16 GB offers better performance. For gaming and other power-computing uses, 16 GB is the minimum you should consider. When buying memory, try to buy as few DIMMs as possible to allow for future memory upgrades.
Dual in-line memory modules contains one or several RAM chips on a small circuit board with pins that connect it to the motherboard. While some desktop computers still rely on hard disk drives , most newer PCs ship with solid-state drives for storing and caching data.
There are two main elements to consider when shopping for hard drives: size and speed. A modern desktop hard drive should have at least 1TB of storage space. In terms of speed, most run at rpm, but some green or variable-speed drives consume less energy. Most motherboards now support RAID to install several hard drives on your machine.
Media keys - For those using their PCs to play music and movies, a keyboard with dedicated media buttons can be extremely convenient. The inclusion of play, pause and volume buttons saves having to navigate to the program with the mouse. Some models are rechargeable too. How many buttons - Most desktop mouse designs have two buttons and a scroll wheel.
However, with the introduction of programmable buttons on more advanced models, there can be huge convenience to being able to add your most used keys to the mouse. Ergonomic mouse designs pay special attention to the contours of your hand, with natural button placement.
Test score. Buying a desktop PC is a big money and space commitment. We'll help you work out your priorities, decide how much to spend and how to start your search. Michael Passingham. In this article What specs should I look for in a desktop PC? Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share by email. Latest News In Which?
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