If you are researching a new Budget Desktop Computer - Pc, we hope that our Polywell 850 Series review, rating & buyers guide will help your decision.

Polywell makes fast machines packed inside their large, handsome aluminum chassis. Their 850 series of systems uses high-end Pentium 4 processors and 1066MHz DDR memory for great performance on office applications for the home office user. And they also include a nice array of multimedia components to ensure that the entertainment-oriented side of the family will enjoy these machines as well.On the low end of the spectrum, the 850E-2000 ships with a 2.0GHz Pentium 4 and 256MB of DDR RAM starting at an excellent price of $1,255. But if it's ultimate power that you're shopping for, the 850E2-3000 offers a 3.06GHz P4 and a gigabyte of memory--and it'll set you back nearly $2,700. Polywell offers a range of configurations in between to let you find the right mix of power and price that works for your needs and your budget.

With fast 7200RPM IDE hard drives, the low end starts at 40GB and the upper tier systems offer 120GB for more elbow room. Polywell also offers larger drives and faster options, including both SCSI and RAID if hard drive size and speed are priorities for your system.

These core components make Polywell 850 systems some of the fastest out there, from crunching numbers in databases to just quickly loading Web pages. And the available multimedia components make them excellent systems for a bit of game playing or video playback.

Even the low-end systems ship with NVIDIA GeForce MX graphics boards, complete with 64MB of video memory. The upper echelon systems step it up to the GeForce Ti4200 or Ti4600 with faster speeds and double the memory. The onboard sound that's built into the motherboard might serve some just fine, but Polywell lets more discerning users add on a Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live or Audigy card for Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding.
Speaker sets range from the basic Cambridge two-speaker SBS15 all the way up to the thunderous Creative Inspire 6.1 6600 seven-speaker set. They're not the monster-wattage sets you'll find with gaming systems, but the higher-end sets (which add only an extra $70 or so to the price tag) will serve users well for watching DVDs or playing games.

All of the 850 series include a 16X DVD-ROM drive and a high-speed 48X/16X/48X CD-RW drive for burning your own audio CDs or creating backups. With the two optical drives, it's also easy to make direct CD-to-CD copies. Users interested in making their own DVDs can upgrade one of these drives to a DVD-RW drive from a variety of different manufacturers, including Sony, Pioneer, and Hewlett-Packard. Polywell also includes Pinnacle Studio DV with all of the 850 systems, letting you edit your own video before burning it to CD or DVD.

The systems all include a network interface, either built into the motherboard or as an add-on card, letting users easily connect the 850 to an existing home network or a broadband modem. All but the low-cost 850E-2000 also include a modem, and one can be added to this system for only $15, giving you choices for how to get online.

Many vendors price their PCs sans monitor, making them looking like better bargains than they actually are. But the prices on Polywell's 850 systems include a 19-inch display from AOC. It's not the best on the market, but it's not bad to look at. Polywell also includes a broad range of matching silver LCDs and larger, sharper CRTs from Viewsonic and Sony as upgrade options.

That silver chassis comes in two sizes--either the 10-bay minitower or the $41-extra 12-bay tower with a larger power supply and more room to grow. Either tower looks quite sharp sitting beneath a desk and can be easily opened for access to the slots and bays inside. The Poly 850 systems include four USB 2.0 ports for connecting the latest high-speed peripherals, and the high-end systems also include FireWire ports for hooking up digital camcorders and the like.

Input devices range from the basic Keytronic keyboard and non-optical mice to boards with myriad programmable buttons and wireless combination sets from Logitech, Microsoft, and Viewsonic for minimal upgrade prices.

Windows XP Home is the default operating system for the lower-end systems, while the top-tier 850s jump up to XP Professional. Polywell includes a variety of office suite options: Lotus SmartSuite, Corel WordPerfect Office 2002, and Microsoft's Office XP, either Small Business or Professional.

Polywell includes one of the best warranties we've seen from any PC manufacturer. They offer three years on parts and a whopping five years on labor for the 850 series. They even include lifetime business-hours phone support and a year's worth of 24-hour third-party phone support with the systems (with options for on-site service). And Polywell's user's manual comes packaged in its own black box, making it one that looks good enough to stand up on your desk instead of tossing it in a drawer where it will be lost.

While the high end of the 850 line might get a bit pricy for some users' budgets, the variety of components Polywell offers lets you find the best system to match your home scenario. It's easy to put together a well-rounded 850 that will handle the heavy lifting of working at home while still performing well as an entertainment machine. And all for a reasonable sticker price in a great-looking tower.

Pro: Nice looking, versatile performance, monitor included.

Con: High-end systems get pricy.