Top 5 Budget Desktop PCs

When it comes to the sheer value of what one pays for a desktop PC, the HP Pavilion a6400f has plenty to offer. While some companies still offer 1GB of memory, HP includes a surprising 3GB with the Pavilion a6400f. It doesn't end there though as it also has a relatively high end Pentium Dual-Core E2200 processor, 500GB of hard drive space, LightScribe compatible drive and a fairly robust software package. All of this for a price that is lower than many competing systems that don't offer half of these features. About the only real downside for the Pavilion a6400f is the large amount of trialware included with the system that degrades performance. Thankfully with a little effort it can be removed to increase overall performance.

Gateway's GT5670 is unique among budget systems. It is one of the only systems to offer the AMD Phenom 8400 triple core processor. This makes the GT5670 a great choice for those that intend to do a large amount of multitasking or use programs that take advantage of multiple cores. Like the HP system, Gateway also includes 3GB of memory that lets the system run the Vista operating system and memory intensive applications very well. It does use a smaller 320GB hard drive and a DVD burner with the less common LabelFlash system, but it lacks a FireWire port making it a less than optimal choice for those looking to do digital video transfers from a digital camcorder. Overall it is still a strong choice especially for its price.

Acer's Aspire M5100 is probably the only quad core system to be found in the budget segment. It is based around the initial AMD Phenom 9500 processor release that let's it perform quite well in multitasking and multithreaded applications. The system is hampered a bit by the CPU bug fix and the motherboard chipset that hold back its potential performance. It does come with 3GB of memory to let it handle the Vista operating system and memory intensive applications. It also features a large 500GB hard drive and FireWire port that make it a good system for those looking to do some digital video work. Acer does not provide much in terms of applications with the Aspire M5100, so uses will need to spend extra for them if needed.

Dell's Inspiron 530 is a fairly old system design at this point, but it also makes for a relatively affordable system. Dell also provides a few twists compared to what other companies have to offer. For example, it uses the Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 processor that gives it significant performance boost over competing systems. The drawback is that Dell seems to think that providing a single gigabyte of memory is fine when it causes significant slowdowns in Vista. Thankfully memory upgrades are quite inexpensive. FireWire ports are noticeably absent unless you pay for an upgrade. Dell does include one of their 19-inch LCD monitors with the system that is a major component that most don't include with the system.

The Presario SR5450F might be considered a similar system to the HP Pavilion as they are made by the same company, but they have significant differences. It uses a much more common Pentium Dual-Core E2180 that provides good performance but not top of the line for this price category. It also only features 2GB of memory, but uses faster PC2-6400 over the more common PC2-5300. The downside is that there are only two memory slots making upgrades more difficult. It does come with a large 500GB hard drive and LightScribe compatible DVD drive just like the HP unit. The biggest difference though is that the Presario can general be found for slightly less than the Pavilion.