Sony VAIO PCV-RXA842 Desktop (2.0 GHz Athlon XP 2400+, 512 MB DDR RAM, 80 GB hard drive

Rating:
Summary: Poor quality graphics
Review: The built in nVidia nForce 220IGP grahpics are very low quality and are not suitible for gaming or business grahpics (such as CAD). Of course for a hundred or two more you can buy a new video card and get good graphics. But then for that much money you could buy a faster system with better grahpics already installed and you don't have to deal with opening up your computer, installing a new card and messing with the graphics drivers. So the low price is deceptive. This system will cost you a lot more in the end.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent value.
Review: This is another excellent entry from Sony CE, again gaining high marks for its value. It features an Athalon (AMD) XP processor running at 2.0 GHz and offers 512 megs of very fast DDRAM. It also has 4 2.0-ready USB ports, a large 80 gig hard drive and a very good CD-R/W + DVD player. My only complaint is the lack of a true game-ready, 64 megs (or higher!) of video RAM. The included 32 meg Sony in-house, on-chip setup here just won't cut the mustard. There is, however, an open 4x AGP slot, so an upgrade can be bought and slid into place in 10 minutes without any fuss. In addition, there is no monitor included here, so that's another important expense to add. Nonetheless, it's a quality machine with lots of great features and it's one you'll probably be happy with for years to come. Having said that, I'd take the upgraded 850 model, which features a much better Intel Pentium 4 processor (running at 2.4 Ghz) for just a little bit more money.