Asus Essentio CG5275-AR003

Pros: Great performance in its class. Lots of memory. Simple to set up. Has VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors, so even for use as a media PC you're good to go. Ample case to accommodate add-ons. Quality components.

Cons: No printed installation manual provided. Comes with Windows 7, which is further bloated with a Microsoft Office 2007 Home / Student trial and MS Works. Awkward flat-button keyboard.

Summary: There's little to argue against this great mid-range desktop at its sharp price point: a powerful Intel i5 CPU with 4 cores, 8GB memory, a 1TB hard drive (which is partitioned to have two usable volumes; one for the system and the other for data), and fairly decent graphics through the CPU-powered on-board Intel video support. All that yields a nice, comfortable cruise-speed machine that satisfies the typical home-user, with spare oomph for fun and games, too.

It's a pity that the absence of a printed installation manual - explained as a decision to spare the environment - isn't compensated with a simple leaflet in big print, with a reassurance that by just hooking the desktop up (i.e. plugging everything in and powering it up) will take care of the process. Could be useful for a few nervous types.

On an issue that is not ASUS' problem, Windows 7: because of the advanced Intel i5 64-bit processor, which among other things offers great performance for the motherboard on-board video, finding drivers for older peripherals is difficult at best. Which means one of two things: either you dole out more money to replace your working but in Windows 7 unsupported equipment, or you ditch Windows 7. I did the latter, but it is worth pointing out as a general issue with this problematic operating system (I fail to understand why the well-supported XP was totally ditched) which, again, is not due to ASUS let alone this particular machine. Bottom line, you're in for a very long hour setting it up and arguably longer if you need to transfer files from an older (say, XP) system.

But once it's up and running, this baby should keep you happily computing for the next few years, without worrying about performance bottlenecks; those 8GB of RAM are really a wonderful thing to have from the get-go.