IBM ThinkCentre A50 Ultra Small Form Factor

There's room inside for expansion, too: Our review model had one open PCI slot, on a riser card. Because the riser card's mounting assembly is removable, installing the card is simple: You pull out the riser, insert the card, and then reinsert the whole thing into the case. You can access and remove everything in the case--including the hard drive (a 40GB PATA model on our review unit, though the motherboard includes a SATA controller) and the optical drive (an 8X DVD/24X CD-RW combo drive)--without tools. The latter is an Ultrabay drive, which many Lenovo notebooks use, simplifying drive sharing among compatible systems. The drive is not hot-swappable, however: To remove it, you have to shut down the system and open the case.

With a 3-GHz Pentium 4 and 512MB of DDR400 RAM, the system achieved an adequate WorldBench 5 score of 78--somewhat slower than the marks posted by the Dell OptiPlex SX280 and the HP Compaq Dc7100 Ultra-Slim Desktop, both of which had faster CPUs. On the other hand, the Lenovo is less expensive, at $1295. And if you customize your system, you can upgrade to a 3.4-GHz Pentium 4.

Our review model came with a 17-inch IBM ThinkVision L170m LCD monitor, which fits comfortably on top of the case. The L170m was one of the few LCDs accompanying a small system in our ten-model roundup that came with built-in speakers. They produced sound easily good enough for listening to music, though they lacked bass and didn't sound great when handling a DVD movie soundtrack. Text appeared sharp and easy to read on the LCD screen, but colors looked a little muted.

Upshot: The ThinkCentre A50's sensible compromise between small footprint and adequate expandability will suit some small-business and home-office users.

Richard Baguley