HP Pavilion A1240n (Pentium 4 3GHz, 1GB RAM, 200GB HDD, XP Media Center)

HP offers several different configurations in the prebuilt a1200n series, mostly differentiated by processor. At $899 (without monitor), the HP Pavilion a1250n is one of the least-expensive dual-core PCs you'll find, and it uses an AMD processor, which we favor over Intel's dual-core offerings.

While the dual-core a1250n is the top of the line, the a1240n cuts $90 from the price and gives you a 3GHz Intel Pentium 4 630 and 50GB less hard drive space. The cheapest machine in the line is the a1210n, which offers a 2.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 3500+ and half the RAM of the a1250n for $619.