The Top 10 Best Desktops

Desktops have come a long way from the boring, beige boxes of old. Now, you can get something as sleek as an all-in-one desktop or as flashy as a boutique gaming box and even a compact (and cheap!) nettop. The price for desktops these days start as low as $250 and as high as, well, $5,000 and maybe more, but a powerful desktop can be had for about $800. The editors of PCMag.com test hundreds of systems each year to help you find the best desktop. In this story, we help you narrow your choices by collecting the top 10 desktops on the market today.

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How to Buy a Laptop

One size fits all? Just the opposite: If there's one thing that characterizes the laptop market, it's the array of sizes and styles to choose from—flyweights that barely tip the scale at 2.5 pounds, lap-crushing behemoths of 10 pounds or more, and everything in between. Indeed, venturing online or into an electronics store to pick a laptop can be an overwhelming experience if you're not prepared for all the choices and focused on your needs.

That's where this buying guide comes in. We'll brief you on the latest buzzwords and trends, help you decide which features matter most, and get you ready to buy the right portable for you, whether it's a super-slim ultrabook or heavy-duty desktop replacement.

Nvidia GeForce GTX 690

• Pros
  Excellent performance, parity with GTX 680 SLI setups. Highly power efficient. Attractive design.
• Cons
  Obscenely expensive. Blocks a second expansion slot.
• Bottom Line
  Nvidia calls its newest dual-GPU video card, the GeForce GTX 690, the fastest ever, and we can't disagree. Just know that's also one of the one most expensive.

The Best Antivirus for 2012

New model-year security products used to come out in the fall, like new model-year cars. In 2011, though, the first 2012 antivirus (G Data AntiVirus 2012($29.95 direct, 3.5 stars) turned up way back in May. It's almost May 2012, so it's time to declare the model year ended and get ready for the 2013 models.

Testing the Tools
To evaluate antivirus utilities I rely on hands-on, real-world testing. The malware removal test involves installing each product on a dozen malware-infested virtual machines and challenging it to clean them up. This article explains how I get from those tests to the figures in the chart below: How We Test Malware Removal.

For the malware blocking test I attempt to install the same collection of threats on a clean system protected by the product being tested. The article How We Test Malware Blockingexplains how I analyze and score the results.

I also refer to reports from major independent antivirus testing labs. The labs have vastly more resources than I do, so they can perform large-scale tests that would take more time than I have available. The chart below specifically lists results for the companies whose 2012 products are rounded up here. For full details on how I interpret these lab results seeHow We Interpret Antivirus Lab Tests. The chart below summarizes our test results as well results from the independent labs.

Firefox 12

• 
  Pros
  Fast JavaScript performance. Excellent standards support. Cool bookmark organization with Panorama. Lots of customization through extensions. Pinned sites for all-the-time access. Syncing for tabs, history, passwords and now Extensions. Graphics hardware acceleration. Cross-platform.
• Cons
  Lacks client-side tracking protection like that found in IE9. Lacks Chrome's built in Flash, PDF reader, and Instant page view. Trails Chrome in HTML5 support. No new-tab page helpers.
• Bottom Line
  Firefox remains a lean, fast, compatible, customizable browser that can hold its own against any competitor.

Get Organized: Vacation Planning

Nothing makes me happier than a well-planned vacation. When you organize and plan your vacation in advance of your time off, you can make the most of every minute while you're gone.

The lead up to your holiday should be as stress-free as the vacation itself. The more organized you are during the planning phase, the more likely things will fall into place. When you have the information you need at your fingertips—at the airport or car rental kiosk, in the taxi, at the hotel check-in desk—you stop worrying about what might happen next and actually enjoy being in the moment. Here's how to do it.

3 to 6 Months Out: Planning
Budget. At least three months before your vacation, you should know roughly where you'll go and with whom. Wanderlust can lure you to far-flung destinations, but your budget may keep you closer to home. Three months out, you should have a realistic grasp of your vacation budget, both in total and per day. Ask people you know who have been to the destination before what's a good price for flights and accommodations to get a baseline figure against which you can judge results from travel search websites, like Expedia and Travelocity.

Flights and accommodations. Typically, the largest expense of a vacation is airfare, and when you're not traveling by plane, it's accommodations. For inexpensive alternative forms of accommodations, such as apartment rentals rather than hotels, see Travel for Less: Tips for Booking Vacation Rentals.

Start tracking prices for airfare and looking for deals on hotels at least three months before your trip. Free travel search websites, such as Orbitz (4 stars, Editors' Choice) and Kayak (3 stars), have price tracking features that let you sign up for email alerts, letting you see when the cost of a flight goes up or down.

10 Extreme Cases of Nerd Rage

Nerd rage. We've all experienced it. Perhaps you feel it in a darkened movie theater while watching a timeless graphic novel unravel before your eyes (ahem, Watchmen). Maybe you feel your temperature start to rise when a Joss Whedon show is cancelled. It might even be because that hobbit looks a little too uncomfortably real. Whatever the catalyst, something you love has been degraded or insulted in some way and your anger, offense, or indignation may result in a destructive Hulk-like rage. Or, more likely, you turn to Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and the comments sections of blogs to unleash these feelings of fury on the world.

Not that every nerd is sitting around all day finding things to complain about. There's even what we like to call "anti-nerd-rage," which is exemplified with Bronies. When one thinks of a fanbase, it's common to conjure images of bitter cynics who attack everything that's wrong with the subject they hold dear. However, the fanbase of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic boasts a remarkable amount of optimism and sincerity.Bronies, show us that nerd rage can sometimes work in a positive light. That being said, maybe the Bronies are among the things that ignite your rage.

Though it was hard, we've narrowed this list down to 10 things that have made us ready to combust like Ghost Rider (speaking of which, what about Nicolas Cage as Ghost Rider?). Let us know what abominations turn your face red and send you running to the message boards to vent. But remember, take a deep breath first.