Not only will a $3,000 gaming tower offer immense computing power today, but it should come with so much room for expansion and potential for upgradability that its useful life will be far longer than any laptop's. (Photo: Zlata Ivleva)Īt the top end of the market are business workstations, tricked-out gaming rigs, and magnificently engineered all-in-one PCs that cost several thousand dollars. The desktop, in contrast, would need to stay put and just work. That inexpensive laptop would be subject to the vagaries of daily commuting and the occasional drop from a coffee table. A $250 Black Friday special or a steeply discounted refurbished desktop could perform just fine for basic computing, and you wouldn't need to worry about the wear and tear on cheap materials that you might with a laptop of a similar price. The thing with desktops is, opting for a cheap one does not carry some of the same risks you'd face with a like-priced laptop. You can also find all-in-one desktops, with the display and all of the computing components built into a single device, starting at around $400. Gaming desktops with dedicated graphics cards start at around $500. You can find complete mini PCs for very light work and display-signage tasks for under $300, and perfectly serviceable small towers for $300 to $600. Instead of buying a $700 laptop with a competent Intel Core i5 processor, you can get a $700 desktop with a more powerful Core i7 CPU in it, and maybe even squeeze in a dedicated graphics card. Your money simply goes further with desktop PCs and their components. One of the desktop's most alluring promises is the value it delivers. Let's consider these, and a bunch of other important factors, in this guide to buying a desktop.
While desktops don't come in as many distinct form factors as laptops do, there is great variation in computing power and room for upgrades among them.
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