Top 15 Home PCs

Some clichés are true. We've heard "desktop power has never been cheaper" for ages, but the PCs on this month's charts bear that adage out. For just $1599, Gateway's Performance 500 packs a fast PIII-500 CPU, 128MB of RAM, a DVD-ROM drive, and an ink jet printer. Budget-conscious buyers will find solid Celeron-400 systems (with 15-inch monitors) for as little as $605.

New This Month

A couple of new systems this month did not nab our top spots but still merit serious consideration. The $2049 Quantex M600 power system is a real steal. Packed with a Pentium III-600 processor, 128MB of RAM, a 20.4GB hard drive, and both a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive, it's ready to tackle any task. The system plays as hard as it works, thanks to a terrific graphics subsystem powered by a card from 3dfx. The card helped produce exceptionally smooth and fast images on our 3D game tests, and it also gives you a TV-out port. Novices will be frustrated, though, because this system lacks setup help. And though the keyboard contains programmable buttons for launching applications such as an Internet browser or e-mail, ours did not come with the drivers needed to make them work. The price includes three years of on-site service and a three-year warranty on parts and labor.

Sony's $1548 VAIO PCV-R536DS missed our midrange chart but offers a good compromise between features and price--particularly if you're a budding digital video artist. This system gives you all the video-editing software tools of Sony's higher-priced model, the $2348 PCV-R539DS, and more power than the company's low-end $1148 PCV-R532DS. Once you get beyond dabbling, however, you'll probably want more storage than the 10GB you get with the R536DS. To handle large image files, you might also need to add a CD-RW drive or some other form of removable storage.