Micro Express Microflex 3000D

Equipped with a 2.17-GHz Athlon XP 3000+ CPU and 512MB of DDR400 memory, the 3000D earned a score of 130 on our PC WorldBench 4 test suite. That isn't the highest mark we've seen on the value side of our chart, but it's right up there.

The attractive black case has five open drive bays (three internal for extra hard drives, and two externally accessible for removable or optical drives) and five PCI slots, plus three open memory sockets. You'll have to use a screwdriver to remove the screws holding the top panel in place; but in other respects, adding components shouldn't pose a problem. The case's interior is neat, with folded cables and bundled wires, and latches on the drive bays keep drives locked in place. Among the connectors available for peripherals are five USB 2.0 ports (only one of these is located on the front panel, however).

Despite the low price, we found a few high-end components. The 15-inch analog NEC MultiSync LCD1560V+ flat-panel screen performed well in our tests for text quality, rendering crisp lettering at all sizes. It impressed us less at color reproduction: In our tests with a DVD movie and a photo, skin tones appeared unnatural and dark. The Radeon 9600 graphics card produced high frame rates in all of our test games, though the monitor doesn't support resolutions higher than 1024 by 768.

The system has a six-in-one card reader (common on pricier systems but unusual on a value one), a 16X DVD-ROM, and a 52X/24X/52X CD-RW. The 80GB hard drive is large enough to support general home and office productivity use, but it will quickly fill up if used for tasks such as storing video or audio files (the case design makes adding drive space quite easy).

Micro Express bundled this system with Creative's SBS 4.1 450 speaker set, which consists of four satellites and a subwoofer. It was good enough for general use at low volume levels; but when we popped in a DVD movie and cranked up the volume, we heard distorted trebles and underwhelming bass notes.

The documentation accompanying this unit includes a generic manual with basic information that applies to all Micro Express PCs, but nothing specific to this model or the components it contains. However, Micro Express does provide an 800-page guide to Windows XP Home Edition.

Upshot: The versatile mix of components in the 3000D makes it suitable for home or small-office use.

Mick Lockey