Dell PC

Thanks to Dell's commitment to innovation and customer configuration, the company has scrambled its way to the top of the U.S. PC market. Dell's nearest competitor, Hewlett-Packard/Compaq, is now a distant second place. Gateway, which gave the Dell PC business a run for the money in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has progressively fallen behind the pack.

Let's consider one of the more advanced Dell PCs on the market today, the Dell Dimension 9100. This is a full media machine, with a strong Windows XP platform and a powerful Intel processing system. The Dimension 9100 is a large computer, relatively speaking. It boasts a 20-inch LCD screen, a full-size tower, and a fully wired mouse and keyboard set. You can purchase more accoutrements for a little extra.

The Dell Dimension 9100 is ideal for gamers, in that it stores 250 GB on its hard drive and processes with the gargantuan ATI Radeon X850 XT graphics card. For something slightly less potent, you may get the Dell Dimension 5100--still an excellent computer. The 5100 offers a 3.4 GHz processor and an nVidia GeForce 6800 graphics card. Both the 9100 and 5100 look far more futuristic than the old black Dell PC towers.

If you really want to go all out, you can invest in the Dell Dimension XPS, a high range gaming system. This behemoth machine features a whole terabyte of hard drive room and one of Intel's more advanced processors, the dual-core Extreme Edition 840. The XPS offers noticeable advantages over the 9100, but you should weigh whether its super advanced gaming capabilities are worth the exorbitant price tag.