The eMachines T5230 desktop computer is the most expensive of their new PCs--yet it still comes in priced at under $500, and the impressive components you get at this price led us to give it our Budget Buy rating.

Those components start with the speedy AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor. This 64-bit dual-core CPU features twin 2.3GHz cores operating on a single chip for excellent multitasking performance. It's a high-end chip in a budget system that will handle everything from 3D gaming to all the bells and whistles of Windows Vista Home Premium and its Aero interface.

The good folks at eMachines pair that processor with a gigabyte of swift 667MHz DDR2 memory. This is a decent amount for running Vista without problems. This model supports up to 2GB, but there aren't any open DIMMs, so you'll have to replace some of the current memory in order to upgrade.

The T5230 features a whopping quarter-terabyte of storage space on the 250GB 7,200rpm hard drive. This gives even heavy multimedia users a respectable amount of room to house large video files and install everything from games to expansive applications. With the Home Premium edition of Vista and this hard drive, you can add a TV tuner card and have room to watch and record your favorite television shows.

The optical drive is equally impressive. This SuperMulti DVD writer burns to traditional DVDs and CDs as well as Dual Layer media that stores up to four hours of high-quality video or 8.5GB of data on a single disk. These drives can also handle DVD-RAM disks, which can be rewritten to up to 100,000 times, making them perfect for scheduling regular backups of your data.

We also liked the handy 15-in-1 media card reader that supports almost every format imaginable from your digital camera or PDA. This reader can handle everything from Memory Sticks (in all varieties) to CompactFlash, MMC, and Secure Digital cards--in regular and mini and mobile formats. It's a handy device and a nice find on a desktop computer at this price point.

About the only weak spot in the T5230 is its integrated graphics. Like other eMachines, it is NVIDIA's GeForce 6150SE, so you'll get better gaming performance than other integrated graphics. But you still share video memory with the main system RAM, so 3D gaming suffers. For users who want to be able to play the latest games, the T5230 has an available PCI-Express slot for adding a cutting-edge graphics card at any time.

Audio is integrated as well, although it's 5.1-surround sound capable. The speakers that come with these desktop computers are a basic pair of USB-powered stereo speakers, so a speaker upgrade may be in order for more discerning audiophiles.

The front of the black-and-silver mid-sized tower features two USB ports for easily connecting peripherals as well as headphone and microphone ports for hooking up a headset. With both a modem and a network interface, the T5230 desktop computer can be connected to the Internet via either dial-up or broadband.

Another bland entry is the input device combo. The keyboard does offer a few multimedia hotkeys, but the plain two-button PS/2 mouse is rather unexciting. We weren't thrilled with the software bundle, either: You get Microsoft Works 8.5, so a set of basic office applications is included, but most of the bundled programs are trial versions, only useable for a limited period before you'll have to shell out the full price. A one-year warranty on parts and labor for the T5230 is included, the standard for the industry.

Apart from some minor quibbles, we were overall quite impressed with the eMachnes T5230. For users interested in stalwart performance from great core components at an excellent price, the T5230 desktop computer is some of the best bargains on the market.


Pro: Excellent performance for the price, good components
Con: Integrated graphics, no display included

Warranty
1-year limited