et-1161

eMachines budget desktop airs some stank

Do not attempt to adjust your monitor: yes, the eMachines you see to the left of this copy is just as boring as it appears. It's a budget system that costs $380, so we're not expecting world-class design, but eMachines doesn't even make it pretty on the inside. There's ample room for expansion, but the core components aren't blowing up skirts:

2.1GHz AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor 4050e 3GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM 128MB shared NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE integrated graphics chip 320GB, 7,200 rpm hard drive dual-layer DVD burner Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (… Read more

Compaq's budget desktop will do the job, but others do it better

If you're buying a budget computer, it's worth your time to look into the Compaq Presario SR5610f desktop. It's not far off from a barebones machine, and you don't get a ton of extra features, but the price is so low that it's hard to complain. You get a dual-core 2.5GHz AMD processor, 3 gigs of ram, an integrated video card, and a 320GB hard drive, which should be enough power to get you through the standard applications, stuff like word processing, streaming video, mp3 playback, etc...but you definitely shouldn't expect it … Read more