After much discussion, our experts didn't find a machine worthy of a Best Buy this month, but there were three that deserved Commendations Deciding on an ideal system for business can be difficult as there is an enormous number of vendors out there, all offering numerous different models with varying pieces of hardware in them. Where to even begin is often the biggest headache. With this Group Test we've cut down the options somewhat, by only considering systems based on the Celeron processor. But even here we've found a great variety in the specification, form factor and performance of the systems on offer.
Performance is one factor that is often overrated as far as business use is concerned.
Small companies are more likely to be concerned about the purchase cost of the system, and how likely it is to fail over its lifetime of roughly three years of use. Unfortunately, long-term reliability is outside the scope of a Group Test such as this one, but build quality is often a good sign of a system that is going to withstand the test of time, and this is one of the criteria we have taken into consideration when reviewing the 15 PCs here. The performance difference between it and a Pentium III of similar clock speed seems minimal when performing business tasks, and the lower cost lets buyers opt for a bargain, or beef up the specification in other areas. As far as awards go, our team was faced with the conundrum of lots of good-quality systems more than capable of performing the tasks they will be called on to do. For this reason, we haven't given out PC Direct's highest accolade, the Best Buy, this month.