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It's what's inside that counts. Take, for instance, the Gateway Professional S 1500, which grabs the top spot this month. This 1.5-GHz P4 machine exhibits imposing performance on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests and features an intuitive tool-less design that makes upgrading as easy as using a Lego set. Another PC equipped with a 1.5-GHz P4 also debuts on the chart this month--the spiffy-looking Polywell Poly 850GB-1500, which divides 60GB of storage between two hard drives connected by a RAID controller for extra speed. The Poly comes onto the chart at number four.

Also of Note

Sharp-eyed readers will notice that last month's number one system (the Gateway E-4600XL Deluxe) is nowhere to be found on this month's chart. Because the specifications of that system are so close to those of the new Gateway Professional S 1500, we did not include it. When we're presented with two extremely similar machines from the same vendor, we sometimes remove the older one. In this case, the two machines share the same CPU, memory, and other features, but the E-4600XL Deluxe is designed more for corporate environments (with a number of remote-management features) while the Professional is aimed at small and home offices, where the system won't be managed by an IS department.

In contrast, the two Polywells that made the chart--the Poly 830K7-1100 and the Poly 850GB-1500--are dissimilar systems equipped with different processors, memory types, and prices. As a result, each earns its own place on the chart.