From...

September 6, 1999
Web posted at: 2:15 p.m. EDT (1815 GMT)

by Kirk Steers

ALSO    Sign up for the Computer Connection e-mail service    For more computing stories

(IDG) -- Sure, sub-$1000 PCs have been around for a while. But not all companies rushed to roll out cheapo systems. This month we finally see a sub-$1000 system from Dell, the Dimension L400c. Power-hungry users can still pay top dollar for a souped-up Dell machine, such as our number one Dimension XPS T550.

Near misses

Of the three new home machines that did not make our charts this month, the Aptiva 175 from IBM came closest to cracking the budget list.

The Aptiva 175's $799 price isn't just hot, it's red-hot -- at least for a PC from Big Blue. In this case, however, a superlow price wasn't enough to land the system on the chart. In the first place, the Aptiva 175 is a very basic unit: It comes with AMD's K6-2-380 processor, 64MB of RAM, and a small 4GB hard drive. What's more, the system's PC WorldBench 98 score of 161 matches that of a typical PII-300 machine.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
	IDG.net home page
PC World home page
FileWorld find free software fast
Make your PC work harder with these tips
Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net
		IDG.net's desktop PC page
		IDG.net's portable PC page
IDG.net's Windows software page
IDG.net's personal news page
Year 2000 World
Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you
Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for computer geniuses (& newbies)
Search IDG.net in 12 languages
News Radio
	Fusion audio primers
	Computerworld Minute

In addition, the Aptiva 175 uses an integrated SIS 530 graphics chip set and 4MB of video RAM that is shared with the system's main memory -- an arrangement that yielded very poor graphics performance scores in our tests.

The Aptiva has one memory slot available. However, the machine's cluttered interior makes upgrades very difficult.

Despite these shortcomings, the Aptiva 175 gives you enough power to surf the Web, balance your checkbook, do homework, and tackle most home-office tasks.

Currently, the Aptiva 175 is available only at the nationwide Best Buy retail chain. IBM says that it may make a similarly configured Aptiva in the near future that will be sold through other retail chains, but at the time of this writing the company could give us no further details.

Top 5 power PCs

1. Dell Dimension XPS T550
2. Gateway Performance 500
3. Micron Millennia Max 500
4. Quantex SM550 SE
5. Sony VAIO Digital Studio PCV-R528DS