I have always been a little bit skeptical about the value of tablet PC’s. They didn’t seem to me to provide any significant extra value, over a conventional laptop. I think that this was largely due to my feeling or perception that features like the handwriting technology really just were not ready for prime time.

Now however I think things are changing. The time is right for a big growth in the popularity of this sub segment of the PC market. The capability of the hand written recognition software is improving rapidly and as touch screens become more pervasive I can see more applications being developed that really add value.

Presently there are tablet PC’s available from most hardware vendors. These generally all run Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, which provides all the functionality you would require. If you are the do it yourself type you can always run Linux on most of the available tablets on the market today.

Some of the most popular tablets are the HP Compaq Tablet PC TC4400 and the Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook P1610

What is it about the need for the latest and greatest? For a significant number of people there seems to be an overwhelming need to have the latest biggest, faster and the most powerful version of whatever is important to them in their life. You see this in people‘s relationships with their cars, boats, gadgets and yes of course their computers.

So how does this need for speed manifest itself when applied to computers? Well it can be through a need to have the latest laptop. Some Mac fans will probably fall into this category for instance, people who will have queued through the night to buy the iPhone, and probably have the MacBook Air on order already. In other people it will be the need to upgrade or “pimp” their PC with the fastest CPU available or the fastest video cards, soon after they become available. Gamers will often be in this camp, and for good reason, since as we saw when looking at gaming rigs, both the video card and the CPU are very important in driving performance.

Interestingly if you look at the some of the most popular and highly rated computer products on PriceGrabber they are CPU’s like the highly rated Intel Core 2 Duo Quad Processor. Now I wouldn’t mind having that under my computer’s bonnet.

In my introduction to desktop computing I said that we would have a look at a number of the specific functional groups into which we can categorise a desktop computer. Well I thought gaming PC’s would make a good place to start.

So what makes a gaming PC? Well these days apart from some very specific technical functions, games are probably the applications that push the components of a PC to the limit, far more so than the majority of the day to day reading of email and the odd letter to the bank.

Ok, so what is it you actually need, you ask. Well there are a number of things you need, power, power and more power! Yes you guessed it, it’s all about power! A powerful processor and a powerful graphics card, backed up with plenty of memory. Of these the graphics card is the most important followed equally by the processor and the memory. Get the best of these that you could afford would be a general rule.

However as well as the pure power you need to ensure you have a number of other components to ensure a good gaming experience. A good sound card is a must and great interface tools, things such as the keyboard and mouse, which may need to take a fair bit of punishment, are also important. Of course every month sees newer and more powerful PC components, so to all these considerations you should probably add the ability to upgrade. The more upgradeability your PC has, the longer you will be able to keep it providing you with a good gaming experience.

I thought I would begin a series of posts that will look at good candidates for the components that make up a great gaming machine. Of course purchasing the individual components are only important if you are building your own or upgrading. If you are looking for a complete gaming machine then the HP Pavilion Elite m9085 would be a good place to start, with a top of the range processor, graphics card and 3 GB of memory. Nice!

Are you thinking of buying a new desktop computer system? If you are, you might find this series of posts on desktop computers useful. In the series I plan to cover a number of the aspects of desktop computers that you need to think about when trying to select the right desktop computer for you.

Essentially a desktop computer is made up of the following components;

• A processor (Often referred to as the CPU)
• Some memory (Often referred to as RAM)
• A hard drive (Maybe referred to as disk drives)
• An optical drive (Usually referred to as the CD or DVD drive)
• A graphics card (Sometimes called a Video card
• A monitor or screen
• Some connectors

What you look for in any of the above components will largely be related to what you want to do with your desktop system. There might also be some external factors, such as only having a small area in which to actually put your computer for instance. Of course the amount of dosh that you have available might also have a small bearing on your ultimate decision! If we look at it from a cost point of view, we can probably create a number of groups such as;

• Budget Desktops
• Standard Desktops
• Performance Desktops

If we look at it from a more functional perspective we can come up with some different groups such as:

• Gaming Desktops
• Media centre Desktops
• Multimedia Desktops
• Small footprint desktops

We will take a look at all these groups individually in upcoming posts. One of the benefits of a desktop computer as opposed to a laptop for instance is the ease of upgrading the individual components such as the graphics card. So we will also take a look in more detail at some of the individual components we initially identified above. In the mean time, just to wet your appetite, have a look at the popular Acer Aspire T660 Desktop which sits firmly in the budget desktop group and provides excellent value for money.

For a while now laptops have been outselling desktop computers with most people now opting for the convenience of being able to take their computer with them. Even if it that just means taking it to sit next to the other half while they watch EastEnders or Match of the Day on the TV, rather than sitting upstairs all alone in the back bedroom.

So with the desktop computer in decline, manufactures are looking for different ways to change the image and the form of the traditional desktop computer. One increasing popular approach is the “all in one”, in which the computer is housed entirely within the screen, with perhaps the most widely recognised example being the Apple iMac. The iMac has been very succesful and has recently received an upgrade and a new look. The “all in one” approach is actually not new one, with the iMac having been around for a number of years, but it is one that is seeing increasing focus and attention.

Sony are another manufacturer who are convinced that the format is a winner, and have also been producing “all in one” computers for a number of years. For Windows users Sony’s latest models such as the Sony VAIO VGC-LT1S provide an excellent Windows alternative to the iMac, with similar benefits and features including a bundled Adobe software package, which is obviously meant to compete with Apple’s iLife suite.

Dell also seem to have decided the format is the future, as today the company have started selling their new Dell XPS One desktop computer, which looks like it might be one of the most attractive all-in-one PC’s yet produced. So if you actually fancy sitting in that back bedroom rather than watching EastEnders, perhaps a note to Santa is in order!