Home Computer Review
Avoid the freezing, crashing and flashing while trying to run high-end programs on your low-end computer. Upgrade your desktop to a functional, cost effective home PC.
Basic economy PCs can run simple programs and access online content; but quite often, home use extends beyond the basics. Many people also want to edit their home movies and photos, download music and movies or burn DVDs of their family slide shows. Low–end, entry–level systems are often not equipped to run such demanding applications. However, with a few upgrades, these systems can run popular programs and are ready to use out of the box with a monitor, speakers, printer and DVD burner.
What can a good home PC do?
There are a few things an upgraded economy PC cannot do, such as run multiple complex programs at once. You won’t be able to run a video editor, an audio editor, record streaming video, burn a DVD and play a game simultaneously. If you are a multi–tasker or want to edit large volumes of video, you may want to look at our Multimedia PC Review. If you are a gamer, see our Gaming PC Review, or if you are interested in a PC to hook up to your home entertainment center, see our Media Center Review.
In this site, you'll find articles on PCs, news stories and comprehensive reviews on computer systems that will help you make an informed decision on which desktop is right for you. At TopTenREVIEWS – We do the research so you don’t have to.™
What to Look for in a Home PCThere are three things to consider before purchasing a home PC. First, you will need to decide what kind of programs you want to run, second, choose what components are needed to run those programs and third, how much you want to spend.
For the purpose of this review, we upgraded entry–level systems to include everything needed to have a great out–of–the–box package that can run popular programs like photo, audio and home movie editing. These systems can also easily access online content like news, Internet radio and streaming video, and can handle common production applications like Word and Excel effortlessly.
To assemble practical home PC systems we upgraded the RAM to at least 1 GB, the hard drive to at least 160 GB and added peripherals like a monitor, speakers, DVD burner, printer and card reader to complete a functional and capable package.
Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate Home PC packages:

Avoid the freezing, crashing and flashing while trying to run high-end programs on your low-end computer. Upgrade your desktop to a functional, cost effective home PC.
| Rank | #1 | #2 | #3 | #4 | #5 | #6 | #7 | #8 | #9 | #10 |
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HP Pavilion p6250t series | Dell Studio XPS 8000 | Apple iMac 21.5 inch | Lenovo Ideacentre K230 | HP Pavilion p6280t series | Dell Inspiron 546 | Gateway SX2800-03 | Gateway SX2802-01r | Sony JS Series | Dell Inspiron 537s |
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| Lowest Price |
$449.99 |
$699.00 |
$1,199.00 |
$749.00 |
$579.99 |
$610.00 |
$429.00 |
$499.99 |
$849.99 |
$549.00 |
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| View Specifications | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! | Go! |
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| Memory | 8 GB | 3 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB | 6 GB | 4 GB | 6 GB | 4 GB | 4 GB | 3 GB |
| Processor Speed | Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz) | Intel Core i5-750 (2.66GHz) | Intel Core 2 Duo (3.06GHz) | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5GHz) | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5GHz) | AMD Athlon II X4 630 (2.8GHz) | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5GHz) | Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 (2.33GHz) | Intel Pentium E5400 | Intel Core 2 Duo E7500 (2.93GHz) |
| Hard Drive | 640 GB | 500GB | 500GB | 640 GB | 640 GB | 500GB | 1 TB | 640 GB | 320 GB | 500GB |
| Operating System | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Mac OS X | Windows Vista Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre | Windows 7 Home Pre |
| Video Card | Intel GMA 3100 | ATI Radeon HD 4350 | NVIDIA GeForce 9400M | EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295 | Intell GMA 3100 | ATI Radeon HD3200 | Intel GMA X4500 | Intel GMA X4500 | Intel GMA X4500HD | ATI Radeon HD 4350 |
| Warranty | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year | 1 Year |
| Video Memory | 256 MB | 512 MB | 256 MB | 128 MB | 256 MB | 512 MB | 256 MB | 256 MB | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Audio | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated | Integrated |
| Optical Drive | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW | 16X DVD+/-RW |
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| Depth | 16.9 in | 20.7 in | 7.4 in | 15.0 in | 16.9 in | 17.4 in | 20.0 in | 13.0 in | 6.2 in | 17.0 in |
| Height | 15.3 in | 16.1 in | 20.0 in | 17.0 in | 15.3 in | 14.8 in | 10.5 in | 10.7 in | 16.1 in | 14.9 in |
| Weight | 18.5 lbs | 22.5 lbs | 25.0 lbs | 21.50 lbs | 18.5 lbs | 17.4 lbs | 12.0 lbs | 12.0 lbs | 18.7 lbs | 16.1 lbs |
| Width | 7.0 in | 7.3 in | 21.8 in | 7.1 in | 7.0 in | 7.0 in | 7.0 in | 4.2 in | 19.2 in | 4.2 in |
| Reviewer Comments |
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| Lowest Price |
$449.99 |
$699.00 |
$1,199.00 |
$749.00 |
$579.99 |
$610.00 |
$429.00 |
$499.99 |
$849.99 |
$549.00 |
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