On the flip side, the MicroFlex 30A houses an AMD Athlon XP 2700, 2800, or 3000+ CPU. While not as high in megahertz as Intel's P4s, the Athlons are quite a bit less expensive than the Intel chips.

The basic gray and beige tower that Micro Express has used for their PCs for quite some time doesn't have a lot of frills. But you can get the tower with two front USB ports for an additional $25, making it easier to connect your peripherals without having to crawl behind your system. You can also upgrade to their sleeker, all-black tower--also with two front USB ports--for $49. It's a much more visually appealing chassis.

Choosing the right monitor is one of the most important decisions a PC buyer can make for their home system. After all, it's the component that you'll spend the most time looking at. Micro Express includes some inexpensive and respectable LCD options for the MicroFlex 30 series. Models from CTX range in size from 15-inch to 19-inch and can be had as an upgrade (from the default 19-inch CRT) for only $150 to $475. If you're looking to save on desk space and take advantage of the recent price cuts on LCDs, this might be the time to do it. There are also some excellent CRT models, including the 19-inch Samsung 955DF Perfect Flat monitor, which can be had for only a $99 upgrade over the default display.

The MicroFlex 30s ship with either an 80GB, a 120GB, or a 160GB hard drive--depending on whether you choose Athlon or Intel, the price difference between tiers of size can only be $30 to $40. But even the lowest-sized drive will hold quite a few hours of home video or lots of audio files. A floppy drive is also included--some companies have made this an extra that will cost you a few bucks.

And both a 16X DVD-ROM drive and a 52X/24X/52X CD-RW drive come stock with the system, so you can play DVD movies and burn your own audio and data CDs. You can upgrade to a DVD burner for an additional $175, letting you create your own DVD movies and back up data to 4.7GB DVD-RW discs.

Both a modem and a network interface card are included with the MicroFlex 30 lines, so you can connect to the Internet via dial-up or broadband modem. You can also easily hook the MicroFlex 30 up to a home network if you have multiple PCs.

The default keyboard and mouse set is the excellent Internet Keyboard from Microsoft and their optical Intellimouse. You can cut the cord on the mouse by upgrading to the wireless version for $25, or make both input devices wireless for an additional $40.

Multimedia isn't top-of-the-line, but it's adequate for most home users. The on-board audio will save you some cash, but if you need better sound than that, you can opt for the Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live card for $49 or step up to the SoundBlaster Audigy for $79. This latter upgrade also gives you a FireWire port, so you can connect high-speed devices such as digital camcorders to the MicroFlex 30.

You get a basic surround-sound speaker set, including a subwoofer, with the system. It's not the most powerful set out there, but it performs well for surround-sound gaming or watching DVD movies.

Micro Express goes through ATI for most of their graphics board options, and you have a wide range of their Radeons to choose from. There's the near-cutting-edge Radeon 9700 All-in-Wonder 128MB that can have your PC serving as a TiVo, and there's the standard Radeon 7000 64MB that's a couple of generations back but still performs well on all but the latest 3-D games.

Microsoft's Windows XP Professional is the default operating system, but you can shave $30 off the sticker price by stepping down to the Home version. Micro Express surpasses most companies by offering a two-year warranty on the MicroFlex 30 line. You can bump that up to three or even four years for about $100 a year extra.

There's no suite of office software that ships with the MicroFlex 30, but you can add Microsoft's Works Suite 2003 for $99 or Office XP Professional (the academic version) for $229.

The MicroFlex 30 series of PCs from Micro Express would fit well into the homes of most users. It offers a nice balance of performance and price, with adequate multimedia and some excellent LCD monitor options. If you're looking to upgrade your home PC or bring in a second system, the MicroFlex 30 fits both desktop space and the bill equally well.

Pro: Moderately priced, great LCD options.

Con: Office suite extra, basic beige tower standard.