Coming Soon: Hot Deals on Closeout PCs

Coming Soon: Hot Deals on Closeout PCs
Edit Yardena Arar, PC World
Prices will be very friendly this holiday season, but know what you're getting.
We're fast approaching the home stretch of the busiest PC buying season, and that means retailers and e-tailers will be throwing out lures--all sorts of shiny new machines priced to move. This year more than most, the range of choices should be impressive, with new Core 2 Duo systems poised to duke it out with PCs based on older (but still quite serviceable) Intel and AMD chips. As a result, bargains should abound, experts say.
"I think there will be deals across the board," Roger Kay, founder and president of the technology research firm Endpoint Technologies, declares. "Prices will become very aggressive this holiday season," IDC analyst Richard Shim says.
Yet the abundance of options makes it more important than ever for you to know what you're buying. Dirt-cheap computers are nothing new, but this season many vendors will be trying to unload obsolete PCs alongside more modern hardware. Here are a few things to think about before signing the credit card slip.
Consider waiting for Windows VistaPC World will review the final version as soon as it's available, but I suspect many of you have already decided whether you want to have the new operating system sooner, later, or not at all. Where you stand on that question should play a big part in your shopping plans.
If you're bound and determined to get Vista as soon as you can, I would advise postponing a PC purchase until the OS launches in the early part of next year, when vendors should begin selling PCs with Vista preinstalled. I don't care how Vista-ready a Windows XP system is: Performing system upgrades just isn't much fun. And are you ready to bet that Vista drivers will be immediately available for all your components? I didn't think so.
"But," I can hear some of you grumbling, "I really want to buy now, and I'm ready, willing, and able to do the upgrade." Two words to remember before you buy: upgrade coupon. Most experts expect that by mid-fall, to encourage immediate PC purchases, many vendors will offer coupons for a free or discounted copy of Windows Vista (when it ships) to people who are buying Windows XP systems.
"I wouldn't get a machine after October that didn't have a [Vista] coupon," Endpoint's Kay says. Even if you aren't in a big rush to get Vista, you might still want it eventually--preferably on the PC vendor's dime, of course--so factor coupons into your buying decision.
And pay attention to which version of Vista the coupon is for. Microsoft says only the top two (out of three) consumer editions--Vista Home Premium (suggested upgrade price: $159) and Vista Ultimate (suggested upgrade price: $259)--will support the OS's snazzy Aero graphics, which feature semitransparent window frames and other visual tricks. You won't get the flashy stuff with the low-end Vista Home Basic (suggested upgrade price: $100).
Be ready to be Vista-readyThe corollary to not buying a computer unless it comes with a Vista upgrade coupon is that you shouldn't buy a system that can't handle Vista--or that, at the very least, can't easily be upgraded to handle Vista. And by "handle," I don't mean merely tolerate. If you want Vista at all, you want a system that can work smoothly with its Aero graphics and all of its enhancements--and one that won't choke if you decide to run a couple of applications simultaneously. In short, you'll want your new computer to be able to meet Microsoft's Vista Premium Ready requirements, rather than the puny Vista Capable requirements.
It's actually hard to find a new system containing a CPU that doesn't meet the Vista Premium Ready requirements (1 GHz for 32-bit CPUs or any 64-bit processor). True, you might have trouble tracking down a system based on Intel's red-hot Core 2 Duo chip priced at under $1000, "but there are other processors out there that are just as functional, and Intel is putting in some pretty deep price cuts for them," IDC's Shim says.
If you're trying to keep your purchase under $600 or $700, look for desktops based on older dual-core technology--perhaps one of Intel's Pentium D chips. Make sure, however, that you're paying less than you would for a system based on a Core 2 Duo chip, because even the low-end Core 2 Duo systems we've seen beat all but the fastest Pentium D systems in our WorldBench 5 test results. You should also be able to find deals on systems based on AMD's dual-core Athlon 64 X2.
Buy sufficient RAM and graphicsIt's somewhat more common to find PCs--especially notebooks--that don't have quite the system RAM or graphics hardware to run Vista at its best quality settings: Vendors sometimes skimp on these items to keep their costs down on a cheap system. To run Vista with all its bells and whistles, you need a minimum of 1GB of RAM and a DirectX 9-capable graphics processor equipped with at least 128MB of graphics memory and support for Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32 bits per pixel.
Also, don't rule out systems that have only integrated graphics: Some do meet the Vista requirements, and Microsoft says even the ones that rely on shared system memory will do just fine with 1GB of RAM (although you might want to add a little more just in case).
If you're not planning on upgrading to Vista right away, you won't need all that hardware--immediately. But if you think there's any possibility that you'll eventually spring for the upgrade, get a system with at least 1GB of RAM. In fact, to be Vista-ready down the road you should make sure you can upgrade to more than 1GB of RAM if your bargain machine has integrated graphics.
If you do purchase a computer with integrated graphics, also make sure its graphics subsystem meets the other specifications--the DX9 capability and the Pixel Shader 2.0 and 32-bits-per-pixel support--that Vista requires.
However, if your budget has any room for it, buy a system with a discrete graphics card. Doing so may even turn out to save you money: Ponying up for the card may cost less than buying additional RAM, and you'll certainly get better graphics performance.
Consider a notebookIf you're in the market for a laptop, IDC's Shim says you're in luck this year. "There's always been this price obstacle that kind of deterred the average consumer and forced them into the arms of the desktop makers," Shim says. "That's going away." Shim says the market should see a lot of attractive notebooks, even ultraportables, in the $1000-to-$1200 range.
Again, Core 2 Duo notebooks will command top dollar, but you should find a lot of attractively priced notebooks with older Core Duo processors from Intel or with AMD Turion 64 CPUs. And that's good news: In our tests, notebooks based on Core 2 Duo delivered only modest (at best) performance improvements over their similarly configured Core Duo-based predecessors (see "Mobile Core 2 Duo Delivers Only Slight Performance Gains"). So don't pay a fat premium for a Core 2 Duo-based portable. (But again, make sure not to skimp on RAM or graphics if you're planning a Vista upgrade sometime in the future.)
And what if you could not care less about Vista? Even if you prefer to stick with a familiar operating system (Microsoft says it will be supporting Windows XP for another three years), you probably still want decent performance. "I still think dual core's a good idea, even if you have XP," Endpoint's Kay says, noting that the technology will benefit anyone who multitasks, regardless of OS.
Whatever you buy, do your homework. With so much going on sale, you need to make sure you're getting a real deal.

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