Black Friday Deals: Desktop computers

Consumer Reports News: November 22, 2010 05:20 PM

Maybe desktop computers are not the most glamorous holiday gifts—sort of like vacuum cleaners. But if you're looking for a Black Friday deal in desktop computers, Best Buy is probably where you'll find, well, the best buy.

We looked at circulars from Kmart, Best Buy, Walmart, Staples, Office Max, and numerous other retailers. Desktop brands in most of these fliers were limited to HP, Acer, and eMachines. The best deals we found were for HP desktops at Best Buy—and what makes them a deal are the bundles.

The HP Pavilion p6604y will come with a 20-inch monitor and an HP DeskJet printer for $500. It's a full-size desktop with a dual-core AMD processor, 6GB of memory, and a 1TB hard drive. In our , its performance was very good. Best Buy is showing it on its Web site for $700, without the monitor and printer, although it's not available for sale yet.

If you're looking for a little more power, Best Buy will also be selling the HP Pavilion p6624y with a quad-core AMD processor, 8GB of memory, and a 1TB hard drive. It comes with a 23-inch monitor and a wireless printer. The Black Friday price is $600. It's on the Best Buy site for $700, without the monitor and printer, but it also is not available for sale yet.

Some deals that aren't so stellar: Walmart is selling an HP desktop that looks like it's similar to the HP Pavilion p6604y, also for $500. But you won't get the printer and monitor. Best Buy also has a couple of eMachines desktops, including the EL1333-11F for $220, but those use older single-core processors.

Take a look at our Ratings for more details on desktop computers we're recommending. Have you seen any great desktop deals for Black Friday? If so, share here.

—Donna Tapellini