Small-business owners are the unsung heroes of the PC industry. While the big corporate accounts can mean large individual orders, it’s the mom-and-pop shops that make up the bulk of the PC market.
So we challenged the leading business PC makers—Dell, Gateway, HP, and IBM—to send us their best small-office/home-office desktops, with an eye toward balancing price, performance, and features. We also got machines from two smaller makers, Polywell and Velocity Micro, to see how these alternatives would stack up. We found that for around $1,300, you can get a reasonably equipped machine that will provide enough horsepower to last your business five years or more. Our reviews should help you find the machine that best suits your needs.