Here’s a category I didn’t even know existed: Back to school (or college) Desktop Computers. I saw them advertised last weekend. Of course the desktop computer is not meant to be lugged around between classes (although LCD monitors are a darn side lighter than the old CRT monitors). This is probably more for the student who either has a not very powerful notebook for taking lecture notes - or some other means, maybe a voice recorder - and then uses the Desktop PC for term papers and the like. With the right choice of a back to school desktop, it can be used for a media center or gaming machine.

The Gateway FX540B Desktop fits into this category. It has a Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor running at 2.4 GHz, 2GB of DDR2 RAM which is upgradeable to 8GB, a NVIDIA GeForce 8600 Graphics card with 256MB memory. Additionally it features a 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive and a Gigabit Ethernet network adapter.

On the down side, it runs Windows Vista Home Premium, so the 2GB RAM is barely adequate, and doesn’t come with a monitor. It has plenty of room for upgrades though. It is also multimedia ready and capable of gaming.

Posted on August 28th, 2008 by mervyn