If there's a recent grad in your house, or you're one of the many buyers who think they can get a better deal at midyear than during the holidays, chances are good that you're looking for a computer. And your chances of finding a good one for a reasonable price are good indeed.
For that we can thank Moore's Law, which should more accurately be called Moore's Bubble. Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, predicted decades ago that the number of transistors that engineers could cram onto a wafer of silicon would double every 18 months for the foreseeable future.
Moore's Bubble has created a market for ever more powerful computers at lower prices, not to mention a generation of cheap, pocket-sized gadgets.
Let's talk about the best computer choice for your student -- or for you. Thanks to Mr. Moore, it's likely to be a laptop machine today, rather than a desktop. And if you don't like an idea of a laptop because the screen and keyboard are too small, here's my advice: buy a laptop, hook up a keyboard, monitor and mouse, and use it as a desktop machine.
Laptops, of course, offer portability, and that increases the price. But on the whole, when the average price of a computer is now in the $600 to $700 range, a 20 percent to 30 percent premium for portability doesn't mean as much as it did when PCs were selling for $1,500 to $2,000.
There are four general classes of laptops on the market today, and picking the one that's right for you is more important than a particular brand or specifications.
At the highest, and least portable end, are desktop replacement machines. They can do everything a desktop computer can do....

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