Mac vs. PC: How to Decide

The eMachines PC, for example, shipped with a loud cooling fan and a cheap, roller-ball mouse whose innards would require cleaning every few months.

The Dell featured "DataSafe," a backup system built around a second hard drive, and a convenient keyboard with helpful shortcut buttons and two extra USB ports.

HP included a wireless-networking receiver and a "LightScribe" CD/DVD-burner that can (slowly) print a grayscale label on special blank discs.

The most important difference between the eMachines PC and the other two didn't jump out until after running a Microsoft testing utility. Like many low-end models, the T5048 had far too little memory for Windows Vista, the resource-intensive XP successor due in stores Jan. 30.

(If you're worried about Vista compatibility, you can't just look for a "Vista Capable" computer. For full Vista support, you need one labeled "Premium Ready.")

The software bundles on all three were the usual mix of last year's releases of basic productivity programs, inferior photo or music software (for example, the Yahoo Music Jukebox that Dell insists on bundling) and Web-security suites that will ask you to pay for a subscription in a month or so.

Tech support ought to be a tie-breaker among all this fine print, but I've yet to see anybody provide it with consistent excellence. Calls probably will be answered quickly or accurately, but not both.

With any computer, Mac or PC, keep a few hardware requirements in mind:

· You're better off getting a full gigabyte of random-access memory (RAM).

· Get as much hard drive space as possible, at least 60 gigabytes (and preferably 100 or more).