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.
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There 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:
High-Level Computing at a Low-Down Price
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.
Click to read "Why Buy an Upgraded Home PC?"

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