WHAT'S HOT: Powered by a 1.7-GHz Pentium 4, 256MB of PC133 SDRAM, and Windows XP Professional, the business-oriented ClientPro CR earned a healthy PC WorldBench 4 score of 95.

The ClientPro we tested has two USB 1.1 ports on the front (and four more USB 1.1 ports on the back), allowing users to connect devices without having to crawl behind the PC.

This system comes with Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition--an unusual find in a value office machine.

WHAT'S NOT: The basic beige Micron keyboard allows smooth typing, but the keys feel sticky during use.

WHAT ELSE: The 17-inch Micron 700EX monitor that came with our test system produced realistic flesh tones in our test photo screen, but colors appeared somewhat washed out. In a word processing screen, 12-point Arial text was generally readable, although some individual characters were slightly blurry.

No tools are required to open the system; you simply loosen a thumbscrew and pop two latches on the rear of the gray-accented beige chassis. Once inside, most upgrades--with the exception of adding internal drives--can be accomplished without tools as well. For example, accessing the two open PCI slots requires only pulling up the slot cover from the outside of the case, and you can add a removable-media drive to any of the the three open bays by sliding the drive along the bay's green rails (which are included with the system, but must first be installed). The two open hard drive bays require screws, but all of the upgrade processes are well detailed in the system manual.

In addition to documentation for the PC's midsize tower design, the overall system manual--which covers the ClientPro CR and the Millennia Max XR lines--contains a thorough system overview, as well as detailed sections on upgrading, troubleshooting, and making BIOS adjustments.

UPSHOT: The inexpensive ClientPro CR offers adequate performance and an easy upgrade path for corporate environments.

SUMMARY

MicronPC ClientPro CR PC WorldBench 4 score of 95, 1.7-GHz Pentium 4 CPU, 256MB of PC133 SDRAM, Windows XP Professional, 40GB hard drive, 24X/10X/40X CD-RW drive, GeForce2 MX200-based graphics card with 32MB of SDRAM memory, 17-inch Micron 700EX monitor, integrated sound, network adapter, midsize tower case; Microsoft Office XP Small Business Edition. Three-year parts and one-year labor warranty; free, unlimited 24-hour daily toll-free tech support. $1344 800/642-7667 www.micronpc.com