Sony is always pushing the envelope with its VAIO desktop computers and the new LT series is another reimagining of what the personal computer can be. This line consists of all-in-one desktop computers that look like flat-panel LCD TVs that you'd hang on your wall. In fact, you actually can hang this PC on your wall -- it's VESA-mount compatible -- and it doubles as a cable-ready television. It's also as pricey as you'd expect it to be: The baseline LT desktop computer starts out at $1,900, although the one you will probably want will run you $1,000 more.

Let's start with the baseline. This system has all the PC components built into the rear of the LCD display and the wiring is neatly tucked away. In fact, there's a wire-organizing tab inside the rear panel so any new cords you connect can also be hidden from view.

The beautiful 22-inch widescreen display features deep 1680X1050 resolution and is perfect for watching movies, perusing multiple files or just sitting back and staring at the Windows logo.

Powered by a 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor and 2GB of speedy 667MHz DDR2 memory, the multitasking performance of these all-in-one computers holds its own against that of other PCs that have a whole tower in which to house their components. Although upgrading all-in-ones is not usually an option, the LT series computers feature a couple of free memory slots so you can add more system RAM later.

The systems' hard drive storage -- a 320GB 7,200rpm drive -- gives you nearly a third of a terabyte of space for game and application installs as well as storing multimedia like recorded TV shows.

Speaking of TV recording, Sony includes a remote to control the built-in TV tuner, and these systems ship with Windows Vista Home Premium to handle the software side of the process.

The optical drive is a DVD-RW recordable drive that lets you burn your own CDs, DVDs, and dual layer DVDs that store up to four hours of high-quality video on a single disk.

Sony even found room for a video card inside these all-in-one desktop computers, albeit a video card that's usually seen in notebooks. Still, the NVIDIA GeForce 8400M graphics card provides a solid boost for gaming and other graphically intensive tasks.

Since it's capable of being mounted on any wall in the house, Sony opted to include built-in 802.11n wireless for these desktop computers. This latest WiFi standard offers faster speeds than 802.11g and is also backward compatible if you don't have the latest wireless router.

In addition to Internet connectivity, Sony includes a wide variety of ports and slots for connecting external devices. These computers feature five USB ports and a FireWire port for hooking up high-speed peripherals. There's also a Secure Digital card slot and a Memory Stick slot for swapping files and photos from your PDA or digital camera. There's even a PC Card slot and an ExpressCard/34 slot for adding notebook peripherals.

These desktop computers features a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam and microphone, so you'll be able to videoconference with clients or video chat with friends and family without adding any accessories. The wireless mouse and keyboard input devices are a nice addition (especially if you're considering the wall mount route), as they give you control of the PC from your chair or couch.

The baseline LT desktop computer is an impressive PC, but if money truly is not an object, you'll probably want to consider the top-of-the-line version. It's priced at over $1,000 more, but it features some rather notable component upgrades. For starters, you get a much faster 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo T9300 processor and a huge 1TB hard drive, giving you more room for TV show storage.

The extra space will come in handy, because you also get the external ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner, which provides the capability of recording HD television channels through your cable signal (with the addition of a CableCARD from your cable company). The upgraded system also ships with a Blu-ray optical drive; it allows you to not only watch high-definition Blu-ray movies on that excellent widescreen, but also record to Blu-ray discs.

Even if you don't want the cutting-edge version of the LT series, these VAIOs are still fairly pricey. If you're looking for a wall-mounted PC, though, you really can't do much better than Sony's VAIO LT desktop computers.


Pros: Beautiful display, Blu-ray writer an option
Cons: Expensive

Warranty
1 year, limited