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It's déjà vu at the top of the budget chart this month. Micro Express holds on to the first and third spots with well-rounded systems, and NuTrend retains second place with leading-edge performance. Only one newcomer earns a place in the elite ten: Compaq's Deskpro EXS pops up at number six. Designed for use in small to medium-size businesses, the Deskpro EXS is one of several replacements for PCs in Compaq's now-defunct Prosignia line.

Also of Note

The Sys TaskMaster 600D, which landed in fourth place on last month's budget chart, has migrated to the midrange chart (where it finishes at number nine) following a price increase of $66. Also, Dell trimmed the tab of its number four OptiPlex GX100 model by $75, pushing that system's price down to $1094.

Meanwhile, we are still seeing only a limited number of systems launched that use AMD's new Duron processor. Although the chip does seem to provide strong performance, AMD is concentrating its efforts more on the high end, with the new enhanced Athlon, and the company has only recently started manufacturing the Duron in large quantities. However, PC World will be reviewing Duron-based systems over the next few months, including some that are based on a new addition to the Duron family of processors that runs at a speedy 750 MHz.

It's the end of the line for Compaq's small-business-directed Prosignias. Compaq Computer is consolidating all of its business PCs under the better-known Deskpro moniker, so systems previously known as Prosignias will now become Deskpros. Both the Deskpro line and the Armada notebook line will include an S series, which will offer software, support, extended warranties, and prices all applicable to small businesses, according to Karan Sangha, director of customer experience at Compaq. This month we review both the midrange Deskpro EX (which supports full remote management and comes without business software) and the budget Deskpro EXS (which comes with Microsoft Office 2000 Small Business Edition and is aimed at small-business and home-office users).

"Our perspective is that it is very important to simplify the choices we present to the customer--not limit, but simplify," says Sangha. In other words, Compaq customers probably had trouble distinguishing between the two lines.

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