eMachines EL1200-05w

The eMachines EL1200-05w is a Wal-Mart exclusive desktop that scrapes together a series of low-quality components in a cramped slim-tower chassis. Although it might look like a home theater PC at first glance, the interior reveals a barren landscape with very little room for expansion. This $298 desktop is one of the cheapest systems that eMachines offers, but we're dissatisfied with the outdated operating system and lackluster performance scores. We recommend saving $100 for a system that will allow you the freedom to multitask and run more robust applications.

Don't be fooled by the small chassis, the eMachines EL1200-05w is a far cry from the aesthetically similar Acer Aspire x3200. The case is almost the exact same size at 10 inches tall by 4 inches wide by 15 inches deep, and the front houses the vertical dual-layer DVD burner with a multimedia card reader , USB 2.0 ports, and audio jacks toward the bottom. The rear supplies an Ethernet port, four more USB connections, more audio plugs, and a modem. Two superfluous PS/2 ports for older mice and keyboards round out the back, but eMachines is remiss to exclude FireWire, although we wouldn't expect it at this price.

The Compaq Presario SR5610 is only $100 more than the eMachines but it achieves much more for the price. The most significant difference is in the processor speed and number of cores. The eMachines barely gets by with a single-core 1.6GHz AMD processor while the Compaq's 2.5GHz dual-core AMD Athlon CPU can handle a respectable amount of application multitasking and graphics heavy software. The Compaq can also brag about the additional 2 gigabytes of memory and double the amount of hard-drive storage space. Finally, the eMachines relies on the older Windows XP operating system while the Compaq runs on Microsoft's most recent OS that takes advantage of its extra hardware. At the same time, the retail price benefits from the low cost overhead provided by Windows XP over Vista that potentially gives you more performance for the dollar. Unfortunately, our test results speak differently, and we wish that this system made up for them with additional perks, especially with other budget PCs on the market give you much more horsepower at a slightly higher cost.

The chassis is designed to fit into small spaces, but the side panel pulls off to reveal an overcrowded interior. An overbearing optical drive takes up half of the space, and you must remove the bay to access the hard drive and two memory slots (only one is occupied) behind it. Like most budget systems, there isn't much room for internal expansion aside from the stock components. The EL1200-05w has slots for a half-height PCI Express video card and a half-height PCI Express x1 card. If you do get the upgrade bug down the line, eMachines offers designated spaces on the rear panel for digital audio, eSATA, and HDMI.

Cinebench test
(Longer bars indicate better performance)

Rendering Single CPU

Dell Inspiron 530s

2,360 

HP Compaq Presario SR5610f

2,029 

eMachines ET1161-03

1,874 

Acer Aspire X3200

1,862 

eMachines EL1200-05w

1,313