Budget PC roundup

Rich Brown, Senior Editor May 15, 2008

Whether you need a basic PC for day-to-day productivity, or you simply want a cheap desktop to play around with, we found that you can find a respectable computer for less than $600.

The eMachines T5254 is our favorite, offering a DVD burner, a media card reader, a large 320GB hard drive, and decent performance for $400. Dell and Hewlett-Packard both compete in this price range and offer decent configurability. And if you really want to save money, Shuttle's $229 Linux-based K-4500 system (the only one of the group without a DVD burner, or any optical drive) is the cheapest complete desktop we know about.

Some of these systems cut corners, but all of them will get you online and otherwise perform most of the basic, non-gaming tasks you expect from a modern PC.

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