Compaq Presario SR5350F

In addition to stickers for system components, the SR5350F's glossy black-and-silver minitower case is peppered with connectivity port labels and customer support info-nice hand-holding for the complete novice. All external connections are easy to access, but you'll find no FireWire ports. Though thumbscrews hold the side panel in place, inside you'll need a screwdriver to secure any expansion cards and to work on the drive bays. Three open drive bays (two 5.25-inch external, one 3.5-inch internal) and three card slots (one PCIe x16, one PCIe x1, and one PCI) are available for upgrades.

One slight hassle: Accessing the open internal drive bay requires unscrewing the internal drive cage first, since its opening is blocked by the external drive bay cage. (Other systems position the internal drive cage in such a way that you can access the open area without having to remove the drive cage.)

As for the Compaq-branded input devices, the multifunction keyboard worked fine, but the ball mouse felt clumsy compared with the optical mice bundled these days with most value systems. Compaq's helpful online documentation is thorough and nicely illustrated.

All in all, Compaq's Presario SR5350F is a good-performing system with plenty of storage space, but you may want to add a discrete graphics card after you get it home.

--Richard Jantz