Mossberg's PC buying guide: The 100-word version
Goat-bearded Wall Street Journal gadget sage Walt Mossberg published his annual fall PC buyer's guide today. Great advice, but eight times too long. I've whittled it down to a PowerPoint-friendly bullet list.
Here's what to buy this fall:
- Prepare to spend at least $800 for a good PC.
- Any dual-core CPU is fine. Ignore gigahertz ratings.
- Splurge on Windows Vista Home Premium.
- 2 gigabytes of RAM, 300 gigabytes of disk. You'll use it.
- A separate graphics card, not "integrated" graphics.
- If you can, test the PC's performance live:
- Run the Vista Welcome Center.
- Click "Show more details."
- If the performance rating isn't 3.5 or higher, don't buy.
- Avoid "craplets" — trial versions of programs that clutter and slow the PC. You can:
- Buy a business model .
- Opt out of trial software.
- Ask store to uninstall all that junk.
- Mac fanboys: I love you, too. Now go away until MacOS 10.5 ships next week.