PC gift guide: The best all-in-one desktop machines The world may be trending post-PC, but the desktop is still alive and well even if it increasingly looks a little different than what many businesses and households are used to. Not all desktops meet every set of needs. Whether you want style, or compactness or power, you have to look at what you want to do before you pick the machine. For the purpose of this review, I'm defining "desktops" as systems that usually sit in the same place, and are not designed to be carried around. That doesn't mean they're not portable - as you'll see - but that they're not practical for the road warrior.