Top 10 Value PCs

Also of Note

Two entries from vendors new to the PC World Test Center show promise, but not enough punch to gain entry to the chart. Brite Computer's $1799 Pollux looks sharp, with a black color scheme extending from the midsize tower to the matching keyboard and the 17-inch ViewSonic E70FB monitor. Its wide-ranging software bundle includes Microsoft Works Suite 2000, Streets and Trips 2000, and Home Publishing. However, no system manual is included, and the Pollux's 1.4-GHz P4 CPU and 256MB of RDRAM, running Windows 2000, could muster only a 192 score on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests. That places it 11 points below similarly configured systems and only 1 point above systems equipped with 128MB of RAM.

Another all-black system, PC Power and Cooling's $1649 SleekLine 1000, has a pizza-box-size case designed for mounting under a desk (with an optional $39 bracket). Other perks: a quiet power supply and an attractive 15-inch NEC MultiSync LCD1530V flat-panel display. Like the Pollux, however, the SleekLine lacks a comprehensive system manual, and upgrades are limited by the single open internal drive bay and two PCI slots--in a case that is too short to house even half-height expansion cards. Furthermore, support hours for the system are limited to just 13 hours on weekdays, with no support on weekends.

As for performance, the SleekLine 1000 posted a 150 score on our PC WorldBench 2000 tests--about four points below the average for PIII-1000 systems with 128MB of RAM running Windows 2000. But it's a decent score nonetheless, especially for a system with integrated graphics that shares main memory.