budget

In our current roundup of retail laptops for the back-to-school season, we noticed that the most common price was $799. Halfway between the bargain basement single-core systems and the high-end desktop replacements, there was a surprising amount of variety, with Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs, and screen sizes from 13.3 inches to 15.6 inches.

At that $799 sweet spot, you can get a very capable mid-range system that should be fine for any kind of schoolwork, plus reasonably heavy multitasking and HD video playback. Harder to find are features such as Blu-ray or discrete graphics, although we did find a couple of models with these high-end extras.

Two of the standouts were the HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, which was one of the top performers in the category thanks to its Intel Core i5 CPU; and the Toshiba Portege R705, a slim 13-inch model that includes Intel's Wireless Display technology.

The picture is muddied somewhat because several of these laptops were originally listed at $799, but within the past few days, they've been bumped up to $829. But because they were (and may be again) widely available for $799, we're including them here.

Besides the Toshiba R705, two other notable laptops that hover between $799 and $829 are the Sony Vaio EA24, which adds a Blu-ray drive, and the Samsung Q430-11, which offers discrete graphics for gaming.

Note: Also see our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more

CommonCents from EnDevelopment is a personal financial tool based on the tried-and-true envelope budget system, which traditionally involves putting money for expenses aside in paper envelopes so that you're forced to live on whatever is left over. Such cash-oriented budgets enforce old-school financial discipline, but they have limitations, especially when it comes to record-keeping. CommonCents improves the envelope method with a comprehensive suite of tools for managing everything from cash and credit cards to banking, loans, and mortgages, not to mention complete transaction histories and real-time account and envelope balances.

CommonCents' main interface, My Vault, features a main display … Read more

There are plenty of free tools available for making budgets and tracking spending habits that are intuitive and attractive. Simple Home Budget Lite is neither. Despite its free price tag, we're not sure why anyone would want to use it.

The program's interface is simple in appearance yet gives little direction on how to get started. The main window contains a calendar and input fields for entering each transaction's date, category, and related notes. Four tabs for managing transactions reside on the right-hand side. We quickly noticed that something was a little off with the interface, though. … Read more

One of my audiophile pals, Dave King, e-mailed me the other day about his latest find, the Dayton B652 ($25 per pair). It didn't arrive in time for my Top 10 audio bargains blog the other day, or it would have surely been included.

I've known Dave for 20 years, and we've listened to a lot of hi-fis together, so I know he's got great ears. And he knows how to get my attention: "I'm certain I recently discovered the absolute diminishing returns point in hi-fi loudspeakers. They remind me a lot of Wharfedale Diamond speakers of yore, but the B652 has a 6.5-inch midwoofer instead of the Diamonds' 4.5-inch." The original Diamonds were a really big deal in the 1980s; they were easily the best budget speaker of the era, but even then they were more like $60 or $70 a pair. They were probably made in England, the Dayton B652 is built in China.

It's a mid-size, black vinyl-covered monitor speaker, 11.7 inches high, 7.1 inches wide, and 6.5 inches deep. The front baffle hosts a 6.5-inch polypropylene woofer and a 0.6-inch polycarbonate ferrofluid-cooled tweeter. Dave liked the fit and finish well enough, but he wasn't too happy with the Dayton B652's spring-clip wire connectors. I agree, clip connectors never have much grip on the wires, so they can fall out when you move the speakers. I've seen those things on $100 speakers, but on a $25 speaker you can't really complain about spring clips.

One of the Dayton B652's more interesting design features is its acoustic suspension (nonported woofer. I like that because acoustic suspension woofers tend to sound better than ported ones, and Dave was impressed by the Dayton B652's bass definition. The downside to acoustic suspension designs is the bass doesn't go as deep as ported woofers do. The Dayton B652's bass is reasonably flat to 70 hertz, and Dave likes to use subwoofers with most speakers anyway. When I pressed him on the matter he said he thought most folks would be well-satisfied with the Dayton B652's bass on its own. … Read more

"Good enough" audio is the order of the day, but here at The Audiophiliac it's all about great sounding gear, which can get really expensive. Usually, but not always, so here's a Top 10 list of great gear that won't break the bank. Prices run from $8 to $1,995, and seven of the ten are under $650. All are truly exceptional performers, affordably priced. (Just note that these are my personal picks; see CNET's list of best home audio products for the editors' official recommendations.)

Grado SR60i headphones ($79). Grado long ago set the standard for unbelievably great-sounding, full-size budget headphones with the original SR60. The SR60's sound had weight, detail and punch far beyond the capabilities of most under $100 'phones. Jim Austin, over at Stereophile magazine, recently reviewed the SR60i, and he thinks Grado's upgraded design surpasses the original SR60.

Ikea Lack hi-fi component stand ($7.99) It's made of particleboard and ABS plastic, and it comes in a variety of painted colors (and "birch effect"); it's 21.3 inches wide and deep, and 17.75 inches high. Ikea doesn't present the Lack as audio furniture; it's a side table, but audiophiles all over the world have used it to support their prized possessions. Build quality is surprisingly sturdy.

Sony XDR-F1HD HD Radio ($100). I guess most of you don't listen to radio anymore, but if you're lucky enough to still have a great NPR or college station nearby, you gotta hear this radio. Plug it into your computer or hi-fi and it'll sound better than Internet radio by a long shot.

Samsung HT-C6500 home theater in a box system ($649, pictured at top). I've probably reviewed more HTIBs than anybody, but this new Blu-ray Samsung HTIB really stood out from the crowd. First because it doesn't have the feeble, thin sound I associate with the petite speakers that come with most HTIBs. The sound is rich, full, and thanks to the HT-C6500's potent subwoofer, powerful.

Altec Lansing Expressionist Ultra MX6021 PC speaker-subwoofer system ($200). I checked out Altec's mighty PC sound system when David Carnoy was working on his CNET review. Wow, this thing rocks! It's remarkably clean-sounding, and the subwoofer goes really deep, without the boom and bloat so common to computer speaker systems. Face it, you're never going to get great sound out of pipsqueak speakers, the Altec system's subwoofer is 15.8 inches tall by 15.1 inches wide by 10.2 inches deep, and the satellites sport 3-inch midrange drivers and 1-inch neodymium tweeters. It's easily the best sounding $200 speaker/subwoofer package on the planet! … Read more

Audiophiles never gave up on tube electronics. Sure, there's no shortage of great-sounding solid-state amps to choose from, but tube amps are still a hot commodity in the audiophile world. As good as solid-state amps can sound, they never sound like tubes.

Thing is, tube electronics are more expensive to build than solid-state gear, so when I hear about an affordable tube amp, I want to hear it.

The Miniwatt N3 Integrated Tube Amplifier uses a single ECC83 twin-triode tube feeding a single EL84 output tube per channel, and the amp features a switching power supply. The N3 delivers a healthy 3.5 watts per channel; it was designed in Hong Kong and it's built in China.

Yeah I know 3.5 watts doesn't sound like much, but the N3 made its presence known with a range of speakers, running from my Audioengine P4s ($249/pair), to Dynaudio Contour 1.1s, up to the mighty Zu Audio Essence towers ($3,600/pair). I can't tell you the N3 will work with every speaker, satisfy headbangers, or fill your loft with high-decibel sound. But those 3.5 watts will play louder and sound better than you would have thought. At night with your room lights turned down the tubes' soft orange glow will look way cool. … Read more

As the United States continues to struggle with its deficit, a task force created by President Obama to address the situation may be turning to Microsoft to inform the public about the difficulties of balancing a federal budget.

According to USA Today, Erskine Bowles, head of the Obama administration's budget-balancing task force, has contacted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to see whether the company could build a video game designed to allow gamers "to take a stab at balancing the budget."

Details on the title are few and far between. Although it sounds like it will be Web-based, … Read more

If you're going to get one accessory to go with your MP3 player, make it a decent pair of headphones. This may seem counterintuitive when you consider that all such devices come with a pair of earbuds in the package, but trust us when we tell you this stock set isn't doing you any favors in the sound or comfort department.

The majority of MP3 players include a pair of hard, plastic earphones with subpar sonic capabilities. Of course, they get the job done, so we can understand not wanting to drop a grip of cash on a … Read more

We've been scouring the shelves of big retail stores to find boxed versions of popular PCs--from entry-level systems starting at $329 to massive $2,000 gaming monsters--and putting them all in our spring 2010 roundup of retail laptops.

In the "Budget" category, we looked at off-the-shelf models that cost up to $599 (not including Netbooks). We saw a wide variety of components, from single-core Athlon CPUs to Intel's new Core i3.

Though most of these laptops were not particularly inspiring (but as budget laptops, you can't really blame them), we did discover one hidden gem: the Gateway NV7915u. It is a $599 17-inch desktop replacement with an Intel Core i3 CPU and a 500GB hard drive, which makes it an especially good bang for your buck--so much so that we made it an Editor's Choice pick. We also liked the Asus K60I, which knocked the CPU down to an old Intel Pentium dual-core T4400 but had a cool design and good battery life.

Note: For our roundup of retail laptops in all price ranges, check here.

Check out details of each system below:… Read more