On the Intel front, the Giga ships with a default 2.6GHz Pentium 4 CPU with up to a 3.2GHz P4 available as an upgrade. Taking it to that maximum will run you $422, but you can make a reasonable move to a 2.8GHz P4 for $55 or a 3.0GHz P4 for $179. If you opt for AMD inside, you'll get the Athlon XP 2500+ CPU at the baseline price with similar upgrade choices. Moving to the maximum XP 3200+ will cost $375, but stepping up to a 2600+ or a 2700+ is only $10 or $45 respectively.

That core power comes inside a handsome black and silver tower, complete with two front USB ports and front audio ports, letting you connect your headphones or peripherals without having to crawl behind the system. The rest of the components nicely match the tower's color scheme, including the excellent Logitech Cordless Elite mouse and keyboard combination and the flat-panel monitor.

That's right--at the starting price, NuTrend includes the sharp 17-inch NEC Multisync LCD with the Giga systems. With a matching black frame and a large, vibrant screen, this display looks great on any desktop and is also great to look at. Of course, if you'd rather save some bucks and opt for a CRT, NuTrend includes a variety of traditional monitors to choose from, including the Viewsonic P95+ 19-inch CRT, a great display with a large flat-front screen that will knock $119 off the overall system price.

NuTrend doesn't skimp on the internal components, either. The 80GB Seagate high-speed hard drive provides ample storage room for most users and uses an 8MB cache and Serial ATA connection for fast data transfers. You can bump it up to a 120GB version for only $20 or double it to 160GB for a reasonable $62.

NuTrend also includes two optical drives at the baseline price for the Giga series--a 16X DVD-ROM drive and a top-of-the-line 52X/24X/52X CD-RW drive that lets you swiftly burn audio or data CDs and create your own rewriteable backups. You can upgrade to a DVD-recordable drive for a little more than $100--an excellent price for the ability to make your own DVD movies or extremely large backups.

A mid-range graphics board provides stalwart gaming performance without bumping up the price tag. On the Intel side you get the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro, and with the AMD Giga, it's the GeForce FX 5200. Both cards include 128MB of video memory and render even the latest 3-D games without difficulty. For hardcore enthusiasts, NuTrend includes a range of upgrade options, including the fully loaded ATI Radeon 9800 Pro with 256MB of video memory at about $300 extra.

Audio is handled via the SoundBlaster Audigy sound card, which also includes a FireWire port for connecting digital camcorders and other devices. With the surround-sound Logitech Z-640 six-speaker set tossed in as well, games and multimedia will sound great run through the Giga systems. Audio purists might want more power than the 71 watts of the Z-640, however, so NuTrend offers high-end systems from Klipsch that will literally rock the house if you make the $170 to $250 upgrade.

Both modem and network interface are included on the Giga line, letting users connect to the Internet via dialup, broadband, or an existing home network easily. Both versions of the Giga include six USB 2.0 ports, so you won't quickly run out of places to plug in your high-speed devices.

Using the Logitech cordless input device set is quite liberating, with smooth typing on the keyboard, myriad programmable hotkeys available, and no strings to hold you down. The overall system manual contains basic info on setting up the system and details about the available components.

Windows XP Home is the default operating system--if you need the Professional version, it will cost you an additional $62. While no office software comes bundled with the Giga systems, you can throw in Corel Office WordPerfect 11 for only $14. Microsoft Works Suite 2003 can be had for $71, while the Small Business version of Microsoft Office XP is an option for $181.

NuTrend also includes some great prices on bundled games and other add-ons. For example, you can get Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3 for only $15 or Blizzard's Warcraft 3 for only $25. If you need additional peripherals, such as a scanner or printer, you can add one of these at a reduced price as well. For example, the Hewlett-Packard Deskjet 3320 printer can be had for only $34.NuTrend includes an average one-year warranty on parts, but the company outdoes everyone else with their lifetime warranty on labor and lifetime technical support.Starting at well under two grand, the powerful Giga line of PCs from NuTrend includes everything that you'd need for your primary home computer--excellent core speed, well-rounded components, and appealing aesthetics.

Pro: Great performer, sharp looking, lifetime tech support.

Con: Fully loaded systems can get expensive.