Micro Express' MicroFlex 92B offers a tantalizing mixture of performance and price. The modest $1599 investment (as of December 3, 2008; $200 extra with an LG Electronics W1942 display) provides plenty of room to transform this power desktop into a full-f...

Great price

Awkward internal build

We hope you have plenty of USB devices on hand, as the MicroFlex 92B supports up to eight USB connections on its rear panel. A single FireWire 400 port and two eSATA ports are also tossed into the mix, alongside one ethernet port, built-in 5.1 surround so...

Acer's Aspire Predator is a peculiar power desktop. We see this particular configuration more as a sturdy base with room to grow than a power PC in its own right; a little more detail work on its guts could push it toward the top of the category.

Competitive price Striking design

Liquid-cooled, but not overclocked

All in all, the Aspire Predator delivers solid performance for its price, but a few additional tweaks and a little reconfiguring could have squeezed even more performance out of this killer-looking machine. Cut the RAM in half, overclock the CPU, boost th...

As of December 3, 2008, the ThinkStation S10 is priced at $2479 ($2798 bundled with a 24-inch widescreen ThinkVision L2240p display); a good chunk of change to be paying for a computer that's outperformed by less expensive systems.

Three year warranty for parts and labor

Underwhelming performance

Lenovo's ThinkStation S10 is definitely a workstation machine, but even considering just that, it feels like it underdelivers for the price

Oof! Polywell's Poly X5800i comes very close to being our top power desktops performer. It's mainly a few internal design issues that hold this system back from superstardom. It almost feels like a waste of the X5800i's powerful Nehalem-based Intel Core i...

Excellent performance

Limited expandability

Polywell's X5800i is a sporting rig, but the internal design issues we've mentioned really do hold it back

The low initial cost of this system makes the Video Pro's above-average performance look like a supercomputer. For a mere $1799 (as of December 3, 2008; $1988 if you bundle a 20.1-inch Sceptre display), you get an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU coupled with...

Competitively priced 1TB of storage

Basic keyboard and mouse

The parts of iBuyPower's Video Pro system (and their performance) are quite similar to other midrange PCs in the power desktop category. We don't mean it as a slam when we suggest that this system's greatest strength of could be its price; it's simply a t...

This Studio XPS (model 435mt) includes a 2.93-GHz Intel Core i7 940 processor, an excellent CPU that delivers powerful speeds in conjunction with the system's 6GB of DDR3 (1066 MHz) memory. As you might expect, a 64-bit Windows Vista version--Home Premium...

High-performance Core i7 CPU Competitively priced

Internal design issues Only 500GB storage

Though standard parts and components can be customized and changed over time, Dell is relatively locked to its proprietary case and components. That's a shame, because in a normal, upgrade-friendly chassis, the Dell Studio XPS would shine as a solid PC fo...

The Xi Mtower HAF-SLI gaming desktop is an overclocker's dream. We haven't seen a vendor push a CPU as far as Xi has dared to go here, and it's a testament to the company's craftsmanship: It ratchets up a 3.33-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 to 4.5-GHz of comp...

Very good performance Overclocked but stable

Average graphics Only 600GB storage

If you can stomach a bit of a loss on the graphics end of the gaming spectrum, the HAF-SLI's overclocked insanity of a system offers more than we'd ever expect to see at its floor-scraping price point

Ü¢erclok's Reactor gaming PC represents a perfect example of what happens when you send out a star quarterback with a weak offensive line to guard him. In this case, the player is the system--a supremely tuned gaming PC that comes close to hitting some of

Overclocked Cpu 1.3TB total storage

Single graphics card Some weak peripherals and components

Ü¢erclok's Reactor is a speedy system that offers above-average performance for a gaming enthusiast, but a few of the company's design decisions don't make sense for a PC of this caliber

The Xi Mtower HAF-SLI gaming desktop is an overclocker's dream. We haven't seen a vendor push a CPU as far as Xi has dared to go here, and it's a testament to the company's craftsmanship: It ratchets up a 3.33-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 to 4.5-GHz of comp...

Very good performance Overclocked but stable

Average graphics Only 600GB storage

If you can stomach a bit of a loss on the graphics end of the gaming spectrum, the HAF-SLI's overclocked insanity of a system offers more than we'd ever expect to see at its floor-scraping price point

�œberclok's Reaktor gaming PC represents a perfect example of what happens when you send out a star quarterback with a weak offensive line to guard him. In this case, the player is the system--a supremely tuned gaming PC that comes close to hitting

Overclocked CPU 1.3TB total storage

Single graphics card Some weak peripheral and component choices

�œberclok's Reaktor is a speedy system that offers above-average performance for a gaming enthusiast, but a few of the company's design decisions don't make sense for a PC of this caliber