Top 10 Home PCs- DELL No.1, Compaq off the chart says PC World.
Drew:
This just in.
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by Kirk Steers
Fast is good. Faster is better. So when you buy a home computer you should spend a few extra dollars to get the fastest system you can afford, right? Not always. Whether you want a cutting-edge power system or a less advanced PC that's easier on your wallet, you'll find a range of price-performance combinations that offer what you want without straining your budget.
Take the new ultracheap IBM Aptiva D1N, this month's budget Best Buy. It may not have all the whiz-bang features of today's multimedia systems, but it provides Pentium IIlevel performance for $798. So ask yourself how much PC you really need--you might save some cash.
If you're flying an F-16 in Falcon 4.0 (a flight simulation game) or creating a director's cut of your latest cinema project, you need the fastest PC you can find. All five power systems scorch the carpet with Pentium II-450 processors, and all cost over $2000. But you still have some wiggle room to find the right PC at the right price.
For the second month in a row, Dell's Dimension XPS R450 and Micron's Millennia 450 Max run neck-and-neck for a Best Buy. Both systems are blisteringly fast, though the 450 Max holds a slight edge. The differences? The Micron system comes loaded with gaming goodies (including a joystick, a game pad, and scads of software) and has a $2699 price tag. The Dell PC is easier to use and costs $520 less, but it packs fewer hardware features and a skimpier software bundle.
If you're not a gaming gremlin or graphics guru, you can save a bundle on a power system by buying a PC with a slightly slower (and cheaper) CPU than what you'll find on our power list--without feeling a pinch in performance. We tested two such PCs this month: CyberMax's $1699 Enthusiast KII 300 and Quantex's $1749 QP6/350 SM-2x. Both just missed making the chart, but they're a good bet if you want something between the penthouse and the bargain basement.
Penny-Pinching Performers
On the budget side, too, you can save big bucks. Until now, our budget chart has generally been dominated by $1200 to $1600 PCs equipped with older Pentium II or non-Intel chips. We're finally seeing some real sub-$1000 systems--PCs from manufacturers like IBM that include a monitor in the price. Even the slowest of these offer decent performance to satisfy your basic computing needs.
In fact, the slowest system this month is our brand-new Best Buy budget system, IBM's Aptiva D1N. It steals the top spot from last month's winner, Quantex's QP6/333 M-1c, thanks to an incredible price of $798 (including a 15-inch monitor) and IBM's solid reliability rating.
The compact, no-frills D1N is a real space-saver, too. Its desktop case isn't much bigger than a deep-dish pizza box. Setup is a snap--connectors are clearly marked and labeled on the back of the case, and the speakers are built into it for easy audio.
Like the fourth-place Compaq Presario 2266, the D1N uses IBM's 6x86MX-PR300 processor, which matches the PC WorldBench 98 performance of a Pentium II-233. So you have plenty of power for spreadsheet activity, zipping off e-mails, and browsing the Web. The D1N also carries a full version of Lotus SmartSuite 97--but that's about it for software.
At this low price you can forget about high-quality multimedia: The built-in speakers sound gravelly at best, and the D1N's graphics test scores were very low--4MB of the system's 32MB of RAM are shared with the video card.
Unfortunately, you may have a hard time finding a D1N at your local superstore. At this writing, they were selling fast, and IBM built only a limited number of them. However, Big Blue says it will release a new sub-$1000 Aptiva with similar specs by the middle of this year. As we went to press, no further information was available.
Compaq: Off the Chart
On the high end of the budget spectrum is one of the first PCs we've tested that uses AMD's K6-2-400 CPU: Compaq's new $1548 Presario 5240. This distinctive-looking minitower (which, if you squint, vaguely resembles a space-age image of Buddha) just missed the list because of its slightly inferior graphics scores. Still, with 128MB of RAM, the 5240 posted a PC WorldBench score on a par with Celeron-333 PCs, and within shouting distance of PII-350s.
Hooking up peripherals to the system's case is easy. Home-office PC buyers will like some of the 5240's extras, which include a built-in ethernet port as well as a handy port on the front of the case with both a USB and a FireWire connector.
But adding things internally is another matter. If you want to install an expansion card, you'll have to fight your way through a nest of cables and clutter. And to add memory or remove the CPU, you'll need double-jointed wrists to reach around the poorly located power supply.
Kirk Steers is a contributing editor for PC World. Testing was performed by Ulrike Diehlmann of the PC World Test Center.
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