More Choices: The New Top 100

For this month's reviews of new systems, click the links below.

• Top 10 Power PCs
  
  
• Top 10 Midrange PCs
  
  
• Top 10 Budget PCs
  
  
• Top 10 Notebook PCs
  
  
• Top 10 Home PCs
  
  

Big changes are afoot in the Top 100. Based on feedback from subscribers, we've redesigned several areas of the section to make it easier to read and use. As a result, the pages in which we review desktop computers, home systems, and notebook PCs look very different. We've also added a new product category to the mix: Top 10 Scanners.

Our most obvious alteration to the Top 100 section affects desktop PC reviews. This month we introduce a third tier--midrange PCs--to the existing power and budget layers. With three desktop PC tiers, we can cover a wider range of systems and keep the systems within each category more closely related in price and features.

To accommodate the new midrange section, we've reduced the number of desktop systems covered in the power and budget categories. Formerly we ran a pair of Top 20 charts spanning six pages with three charts each; now you'll find three sets of Top 10 PCs, each with a single, more efficient table. We think the modification will make it easier to compare PCs.

In addition, every system on those three charts now gets a write-up. We tell you the best and worst aspects of each system, and let you know each machine's best use. The result: You're given the same information as before, just in a more digestible, more condensed format.

Furthermore, each of these three desktop sections includes a short article highlighting a new computer trend or a technology that you're likely to see in desktop systems soon.

Also in the Top 100, we've overhauled the Top 10 Home PCs and Top 10 Notebook PCs sections to give you the same information as before in a single table. In the coming months, these sections will become the Top 15 Notebook PCs and Top 15 Home PCs and will be presented in the new condensed format.