A guide to desktop PCs.

By Matthew Kerridge

When it comes to buying a desktop PC, the size of your budget may be one of the biggest considerations you may have. Depending on how much you are willing to spend, there are plenty of desktop PCs that can easily accommodate your budget. Without a solid budget in mind, it's easy to become lost in the many different choices and options that come with desktop PCs, whether you are building a system from scratch or buying a pre-built system package.

Starting at about $300, you can easily find a pre-built budget PC from vendors such as eMachines. These computers will be modest in their specs, but if you are on a tight budget, this could be the best solution for you. Keep in mind that these computers are not easily upgradeable, outside of some modest changes such as larger hard drives and a small boost in memory. You also may have to purchase a monitor separately in some cases.

Mainstream desktop PCs start out at around the $500-$600 mark, and they generally have more options than budget computers, although they do not have as much content as their upper level counterparts. These computers often have larger hard drives, more memory and also come with a monitor. Mainstream computers are perfect for those who more than just surf the web and read email - tasks such as CD and DVD burning, plus other light multimedia functions can be done with ease on these machines.

At the $1000 mark, you'll have desktop PCs with improved performance over their mainstream counterparts. This includes dedicated video graphics cards that deliver superior performance for games and other graphics-heavy applications, CD/DVD burners with Blu-Ray capability and better processor choices from Intel and AMD. These machines also feature more hard drive space and other features that you might not get in mainstream desktop PCs.

Desktop PCs for power users dominate the $1500 and above segment. These machines are essential for those who perform high end multimedia editing and graphics manipulation. These computers may share some specs with gaming desktop PCs, especially the large hard drives and fast processors.

Those who want a desktop PC that can handle heavy multimedia and graphics editing programs such as Adobe's Creative Suite and AutoCAD are likely to demand more from their desktop PCs. For $1500, these power users can find desktop PCs that can handle nearly all of their needs. These PCs share some of the components that are often found on gaming desktop PCs, but these machines are geared more towards business than they are for pleasure.

The vast majority of desktop PCs will come with Microsoft's Windows Vista preinstalled, although newer systems are appearing with the latest operating system, Windows 7. Only a few manufacturers offer PCs with the Linux operating system installed, usually upon the customer's request. Nearly all desktop PCs come available with recovery CDs and other rescue tools for fixing most operating system-related problems. - 31403

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