Micro Express MicroFlex 92B

The inside of the MicroFlex 92B's Gigabyte Triton chassis has plenty of room for upgrading, even given the not-so-pretty internal wiring job. You can install two additional hard drives using the case's handy, screwless drive rails, plus an additional PCI Express x16 video card. The slot for the latter uses a strange screw/tab locking mixture to affix cards to the motherboard. We'd much prefer straight-up tabs, with no screws to fiddle with whatsoever. Four 5.25-inch bays are free for adding more devices if you wish, and the included 20X Sony AD-7201S DVD writer/reader is competent enough to handle your non-HD media.

We hope you have plenty of USB devices on hand, as the MicroFlex 92B supports up to eight USB connections on its rear panel. A single FireWire 400 port and two eSATA ports are also tossed into the mix, alongside one ethernet port, built-in 5.1 surround sound, and an optical S/PDIF connection. The case's front isn't quite as port-heavy, with three ports: two USB and one Firewire 400. But you also get a media card reader. Microsoft's bundled wireless media keyboard offers a number of useful features, including assignable function buttons, media controls, and application-launching buttons. This keyboard feels great to the touch, as does the generic (and equally wireless) mouse.

Micro Express has a winner on its hands. The MicroFlex 92B isn't the fastest all-around Power PC we've tested, but it's close enough (at a perfect price point)--oh, and it comes with a honkin' Big and Simple Windows Vista guidebook.

--David Murphy