Holiday Gift Guide 2009: Guide to Desktops and Notebooks

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Whether you’re looking for the greatest gaming PC for your loved one this holiday season, or a simple notebook for web browsing and email, we’ve got the rundown of the best notebooks and desktops for the holidays, no matter what your budget.

Desktops

Gateway SX2800-01
This Gateway desktop is probably the most impressive small form-factor PC we’ve seen to date. With the power to play HD video and the right ports to hook it up to your HDTV, it’s also perfect for a home theater PC. An impressive Intel Core 2 Quad processor up to 2.5GHz is powerful enough to tackle the toughest tasks. The SX2800-01 is definitely a better value than Apple’s Mac mini with more expansion options and up to 6GB of memory. The Gateway SX2800-01 starts at $499.

Dell Inspiron 546
If you’re looking for a budget desktop with the best bang for your buck, look no further than the Dell Inspiron 546. With your choice of eight colors, an AMD Phenom X4 processor, and up to 8GB of memory and 1TB of storage, it’s perfect for anyone on your list. The base model comes with an AMD Sempron 2.3GHz processor, 2GB of memory, and a 320GB hard drive for just $249. Pay about $200 more and get a better processor along with a 20″ monitor.

Apple iMac (October 2009)
Apple’s iMac has continued to be a hit with consumers looking for a powerful all-in-one computer. The latest iteration packs in a 21.5- or 27-inch LED-backlit display in a widescreen 16:9 format with a resolution up to a whopping 2560 x 1440 (almost the same resolution as a 30-inch display). Plus, with the option of up to a Core i7 processor, this may be the fastest consumer Mac available. While it doesn’t have a fancy Blu-Ray drive or multi-touch screen, it does come standard with a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. The iMac starts at $1199.

Notebooks

Acer Aspire 8940G
Media lovers, rejoice. The Acer Aspire 8940G notebook has a stunning 18.4″ screen (1080p resolution), a Blu-Ray drive, and Dolby Home Theater for the best sounding audio while playing movies and music. Gamers are not left out either with the NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M with up to 2GB of video memory (1GB dedicated). It also has a roomy touchpad and backlit keyboard for those late-night frag parties. This desktop replacement won’t break the bank at around $1349.

HP Envy 13 (and 15)
In an almost duplicate design of the latest MacBook Pro from Apple, HP has a just-as-good Windows equivalent with power and portability. The 13-inch model is 0.8 inches thin and you can get up to 10 hours of battery life with the six-cell battery (6 hours more than the four-cell). HP was able to make the Envy so thin because it lacks an internal optical drive, but who needs that in this day of online streaming TV shows and movies? The HP Envy line starts at $1699, but if you’re looking for the best Windows notebook on the market, it’s well worth it.

Sony VAIO CW Series
Those on a budget can still get a pretty good laptop, and our pick from the budget arena is the Sony VAIO CW series. It comes in five colors with a 14-inch screen and up to a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. An interesting note is that the default browser on the VAIO is Google Chrome, fast and secure browsing right out-of-the-box. The VAIO CW series starts at $719.99.