Apple's always-appealing industrial design; high-resolution display; best performance among all-in-ones in its price range; mini DisplayPort input full of promise

Small screen for its price (despite its high resolution); not as home entertainment friendly as other all-in-ones

Despite its good looks and a few useful new features, Apple's new iMac is all about business. You can find a larger screen for less, not to mention all kinds of digital entertainment features, but no other all-in-one at this price can boast similar ...

Strong performance among Windows-based all-in-ones; picture-in-picture support; wall-mountable; Blu-ray drive and TV tuner make it a relatively complete home media hub; touch input

The 27-inch iMac costs $300 less; lower-cost HP all-in-one has comparable digital media features

Earlier this year Sony was the unquestioned king of all-in-ones designed for home entertainment. The new Vaio L117FX retains and improves on many of the features we liked about older models, but revamped all-in-ones from its competition make the new ...

Inexpensive for what you get; very good performance, battery life; subtle good-looking design

No Bluetooth, ExpressCard slot; poor viewing angles

A large-screen laptop with very good performance, the Gateway NV7802u is an attractive choice for home or office.

Decent light-duty performance, compact size

Slim tower case conserves space but offers little room for expansion; limited connectivity options

The HP Pavilion Slimline s5220y provides adequate performance for light-duty media editing and entertainment, but its slim tower case leaves little room for future upgrades, leading us to recommend the older Gateway SX2800-01 that offers more features ...

Strong visual appeal; competitive features for its price

Minimal upgrade room; no out-of-the-box overclocking; no option for AMD's latest graphics cards

The Dell Studio XPS 8000 offers a strong combination of midrange performance parts that should satisfy anyone looking for a midtower desktop for general productivity, digital media editing, or gaming. It lacks a few performance-oriented extras, but ...

Space-saving slim tower case offers room for future expansion; decent light-duty performance

Limited connectivity options

With similar results as its ancestors, the Dell Inspiron 545s-1476N registers decent benchmarks and offers respectable upgradability, but we hesitate to recommend it over the older Gateway SX2800-01 that leaves Dell in the dust in regards to both ...

Small case with high-end gaming capability; three-year parts and labor warranty

Too many expandability sacrifices, even for small form factor PCs; unwise internal fan wiring; slower application performance than PCs that cost $1,000 less; missed digital media opportunities; daunting online configurator

AVADirect's tries to distill as much gaming power as possible into its Nano Cube, but the extra small case requires too many sacrifices next to even standard small form factor PCs. Gaming purists with a need for an extra tiny PC might appreciate the ...

Large, flexible 18.4-inch screen

Cripplingly poor performance benchmarks; low-volume audio output hampers media capabilities

The Averatec D1130's wimpy processor and paltry features give consumers little incentive to choose this Nettop over a faster budget PC or the mobility of a Netbook. If you're dead-set on a Nettop, the Lenovo C300 is a less terrible decision, but you ...

Most affordable desktop on the market; HDMI and eSATA ports; low-risk starter PC or light-duty email/browsing station; consumes very little power

An Xbox 360 offers the same digital media capability, plus the option to play games, for the same price

Acer's Aspire Revo 1600 might be the first Nettop we don't actively dislike. We'd rather have an Xbox 360 in the living room, but the Aspire Revo 1600 would be suitable as a PC for young kids or as a low-profile cloud kiosk. Thanks to its $199 price ...

Large, flexible 18.4-inch screen

Cripplingly poor performance benchmarks; low-volume audio output hampers media capabilities

The Averatec D1130's wimpy processor and paltry features give consumers little incentive to choose this Nettop over a faster budget PC or the mobility of a Netbook. If you're dead-set on a Nettop, the Lenovo C300 is a less terrible decision, but you ...