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PC leaders of the pack

By The Washington Post

Hewlett-Packard zd7000 laptop

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The top five makers in the U.S. home-computing market, as estimated by NPD Group, are Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Apple and Sony. Here's a look at these five:

Hewlett-Packard

Two years after Hewlett-Packard bought Compaq, those two brands can still seem like products of separate companies. They don't convey a clear message. To judge from recent models we've seen, the Compaq name stands for affordable but unremarkable laptops and power-user desktops, while HP means power-user laptops and affordable, only somewhat remarkable desktops.

The Compaq Presario SR1000Z desktop makes beginners feel welcome with such add-ons as Compaq Organize, a taskbar that provides quick access to the software on the system. That bundle featured Microsoft Works Suite 2004, Microsoft Money 2004 (both old versions) and spyware and antivirus protection. Windows XP was up-to-date, but a CD of it was not provided.

The HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop offered no such front end and included only Works 7.0, not the full Suite release. On the other hand, this machine did include an actual Windows CD.

This 9.3-pound monster, equipped with a 17-inch widescreen LCD, gives off enough heat to warm your home, or at least your room, in the winter.

	Compaq Presario desktop

Both computers include Apple's iTunes music software, a nice break from the mediocre music software other Windows vendors bundle.

The selection of HP and Compaq models at the company's Web site should meet even the tightest budget. Counting rebates, laptops start at $599 and desktops start at $379.

Compaq Presario SR1000Z desktop, $968, 17-inch FP7317 LCD, $420 ($50 mail-in rebate available). 2 GHz AMD Sempron 3000+, 142 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, 100-Mbps Ethernet, v.92 modem, two PCI slots open; ports available: six USB 2.0, two FireWire, one parallel, one serial. HP Pavilion zd7000 laptop, $1,524 ($50 mail-in rebate available). 9.3 pounds, 17-inch widescreen LCD, 2.8 GHz Intel Pentium 4, 55.8 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, 64 MB graphics memory, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive 100-Mbps Ethernet, 802.11g Wi-Fi, one PC Card slot, one FireWire, three USB 2.0 ports available.

— John Breeden II, Special to The Washington Post

Dell

	Dell Dimension 4700G desktop

Dell is both profitable and well-regarded, thanks to its habit of delivering serviceable but unexciting products at good prices and supporting them well enough to keep buyers coming back.

But our experience has been uneven, and the two Dell PCs we checked out for this report reflected that.

The Dimension 4700 media-oriented desktop combines good specs with Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

But the rest of the software bundle is mediocre. Microsoft Money 2005, Works 8.0 and Word 2002 are fine but unremarkable, while Musicmatch Jukebox repeatedly pitches you to buy a $20 Plus version, and two Jasc digital-photo programs are only demos.

We were horrified to see this machine shipped without any antivirus or spyware protection, an inexcusable oversight.

The second Dell, an Inspiron 8600 desktop-replacement notebook, offered reasonable power but, at 7 pounds, weighed more than we'd prefer. Its array of third-party software improved on the Dimension 4700's in two ways: the WordPerfect Office 12 suite and Norton Internet Security 2004, which includes virus protection and a robust firewall.

The lesson: If you buy one of Dell's "recommended configurations," read the fine print. Better still, custom-configure your own system on Dell's site.

Dimension 4700 desktop, $1,246 with 17-inch E173FP LCD monitor. 3 GHz Pentium 4, 145 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, CD-RW/DVD+/-RW drive, 100-Mbps Ethernet, three PCI slots open, seven USB 2.0, one serial, one parallel and one PS/2 ports available.

Inspiron 8600 laptop, $1,304. 7 pounds, 15.4-inch widescreen LCD, 1.4 GHz Pentium M, 512 MB memory, 32 MB graphics memory, 80 GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD+/-RW drive, 100-Mbps Ethernet, one PC Card slot, two USB 2.0, one FireWire port available.

— Alan S. Kay, Special to The Washington Post

Apple Computer

	With the iMac G5, Apple has the computer and 17-inch monitor integrated into a 2-inch-thick panel mounted on a slim stand.

After wading through a sea of virtually identical Windows PCs, it's always refreshing to try out an Apple. In models such as the iMac G5 we reviewed, the company has raised product design to the level of an art and an obsession.

This machine looks like something out of "Star Trek," with the computer and 17-inch monitor integrated into a 2-inch-thick panel mounted on a slim stand.

On the inside, Apple's sales pitch consists of the seamless integration of its Mac OS X operating system with its iLife suite of applications: iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand. Such OS X components as the Safari Web browser add to this appeal.

Then there's the rest of Apple's standard consumer-software bundle. AppleWorks 6, its pedestrian word processor/spreadsheet/paint/drawing suite, hasn't seen a meaningful update since 2001, and Intuit's Quicken 2004 is actually last year's release.

Apple works to make Mac OS X a low-stress companion with a concise, relatively clear manual, a set of system-recovery and repair CDs, and 90 days of friendly, generally helpful tech support over the phone. This iMac's configuration, including twice the measly 256 megabytes of memory Apple normally includes, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a wireless keyboard and mouse, ran to almost $1,600. The base iMac G5 costs $1,299. That can be a bit much.

Apple iMac G5 17-inch, $1,552. 17-inch widescreen LCD, 1.6 GHz PowerPC G5 processor, 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, 64 MB graphics memory, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, 100-Mbps Ethernet, 802.11g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, two FireWire and three USB 2.0 ports available.

— Anthony Zurcher, Special to The Washington Post

Gateway

Gateway's machines — sold under the Gateway and eMachines labels — boast only minor design innovations and no notable software. Most of them (aside from Gateway's ungainly Profile all-in-one models) are fairly generic, so price and good tech support have to carry the load.

The 5200XL system we tested certainly has the pricing part down. It seems to be the company's best buy, at least when compared with other Gateway-brand desktops. For example, to jump from this tricked-out model to the cheapest 7200 model would cost an additional $200 yet sacrifice a bigger monitor and hard drive for a minuscule bump in processor speed.

As for tech support, the help line is open all the time; our wait times ranged from one to 10 minutes, and the reps were friendly and effective. In some cases, however, they could offer only a kind apology.

The bundled copy of an old version of Microsoft Works Suite refused to recognize a file created in Excel, so a tech could do little more than apologetically suggest a $90 upgrade to Microsoft Office.

(This model now ships with the current 2005 edition of Works, which offered better Excel compatibility when we reviewed it.)

None of the preloaded music software could save CDs in the standard MP3 format.

A copy of the Napster music store's software is onboard, along with 150 songs you can listen to only if you sign up for Napster service.

Music junkies might like the subwoofer and speakers included on this model (complete with a control module for quick volume adjustments), but they hissed like snakes until we reinstalled the audio software.

Gateway 5200XL desktop, $1,290 with 15-inch FPD1513 LCD. 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4, 186 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, 128 MB video memory, CD-RW/DVD+/-RW combo drive, multi-format card reader, 100-Mbps Ethernet, v.92 modem, three PCI slots open; ports available: seven USB 2.0, three FireWire, one parallel, one serial.

— Bob Massey, Special to The Washington Post

Sony

Sony is one of the quirkier PC manufacturers around; its all-in-one V desktops and its sleek 505 laptops have few parallels among Windows machines.

But this company's better values are found in plainer, cheaper machines such as the tower-case Vaio RS720 model we tested. Appearances aside, this model still packed unusual features that remind you of Sony's day job as a consumer-electronics giant: RCA audio/video inputs, S-Video jacks, FireWire ports ("i.Link" in Sony lingo), a coaxial TV input and even a remote control.

In essence, Sony aims to provide the multimedia convergence that Microsoft promises with its Windows XP Media Center Edition, just with Sony's software. (One exception: The company's RA desktops do feature Media Center software.)

The results of this go-it-alone approach are mixed. The Giga Pocket program stands atop this heap; it turns a Vaio into a TiVo by providing an onscreen program guide to schedule recordings, then burn them to disc with a separate program, Click to DVD. But if you use a cable or satellite box, there's no infrared relay to control it.

Sony's other media programs fell short.

Its PictureGear and CVgate Plus are decent, but the need to switch from one program to another to finish such routine tasks as movie-making gummed up workflow. The thoroughly mediocre SonicStage rounds things out.

Sony backs its multimedia tools with speedy processors and massive hard drives (193 gigabyte of usable space on the RS720, with the balance used for a system-recovery partition). But the 512 megabytes of memory weren't enough at times.

Vaio RS720 desktop, $1,600 with 17-inch HS74 LCD. 3 GHz Intel Pentium 4, 193 GB hard drive, 512 MB memory, no separate graphics memory, CD-RW/DVD+/-RW drive, 100-Mbps Ethernet, two PCI slots open; ports available: seven USB 2.0, two FireWire, one parallel.

— Michael Tedeschi, Special to The Washington Post

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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