Are you not sure which PC is right for you?

There was a time when having two computers in the house was the reserve of geeks, but in these days of wireless internet and networked games, it’s not uncommon to have a couple of machines. A system by the TV for handling media, a machine in the kids’ room for gaming, and one in the office for the serious stuff isn’t an outrageous picture of modern living.

The pace of technology means that newer machines are not only far more powerful than the previous generation, but they’re more affordable, too. If you’re looking to add a second or third machine to your home, your best bet may be to buy a new main machine and pass your current one down the chain.

We’ve found four machines that cover the range of what you might look for in a new PC. We’ve also picked an alternative in each category so that you’ve got a couple of options when you buy.

NEC PowerMate ML460

Product NEC PowerMate ML460
Price £500
Web Nec Computers

Buy it if... You’re after a well built second machine that needs a lot of raw processing power.
Don't buy it if... You want something with a bit of style and want to play the odd game on it.

The NEC PowerMate ML460 isn’t your standard home computer – it’s actually aimed at businesses that need a number of identical machines. The downside to this is that it isn’t destined to win any design awards. On the plus side, such machines are affordable, and can pack a surprising punch for the money. And this small box certainly delivers.

While the specification isn’t going to challenge real entertainment machines, we were impressed by the speed of this model. Normal operations just seem to fly and the presence of the two core processors makes for a wonderful experience in pretty much everything that doesn’t require a lot of graphics processing power; this is the one area where this machine underperforms. It doesn’t use a discrete card, instead relying on the integrated graphics capabilities of Intel’s 965 Northbridge, which equates to a fairly uninspired gaming experience. We’re talking slideshow frame rates here.

The actual specification is healthy enough, buoyed mainly by the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, which runs at 1.86GHz and is a powerhouse of computing. Having 1GB of RAM is reasonable on a basic machine, although we’re beginning to see similarly priced machines offering 2GB, which gives them a significant performance boost. The 80GB hard drive is a bit weedy, but if you’re looking at this as a second machine, it’ll probably do very nicely.

We’ll happily admit that this isn’t the cheapest option around, but it does highlight how far business machines have come in recent times, and shows that they’re at least worth considering if you’re on a tight budget. The general build quality is impressive, and machines like this are generally backed up by an impressive warranty. Reassuringly, most have longterm parts availability, too.

Shuttle XPC Mini X 200

Product Shuttle XPC Mini
Price £760
Web Shuttle

Buy it if... You want an inconspicuous media centre for your living room.
Don't buy it if... You want to play games or handle high-end HD movies.

The promise of the perfect media centre has been tantalisingly close for years, but no one’s ever quite got it spot on. There have been some truly wonderful machines that could make a bid for a place under your TV, but none have quite touched on that X factor in the way the X 200 does – there’s just something about this latest release from Shuttle that feels right. This is a stylish PC that yearns to be placed in the living room, and there’s no obvious reason why you shouldn’t put it there, either.

Shuttle originally made its name in the PC business producing small form factor, bare bones chassis (the motherboard, case and cooling was provided; everything else was up to you). This has left it with plenty of knowledge of what looks good and what works, and the X 200 is clearly developed from this. It’s amazing that such a small case manages to do so much.

Peer round the back of the machine and you have the various outputs and inputs that you’d expect from a consumer electronics device, including both FM tuner and TV aerial inputs for the integrated hybrid tuner (which can handle analogue and digital broadcasts). The unit also boasts wireless networking, and comes complete with an antenna so that you can get the best reception possible. Shuttle has primarily used laptop components in order to keep the heat production and overall size down, with the exception of the hard drive – so if you do outstrip the 320GB on offer, you can easily upgrade it.

There is a bit of a downside with this machine, though – we found it did struggle with some 1,080p hi-def content (although it was generally fine with 720p). Despite this, the X 200 delivered one of the best – and most attractive – media experiences we’ve ever had with a PC.

CyberPower Gamer Infinity 920

Product CyberPower Gamer Infinity
Price £945
Web Cyber Power System

Buy it if... You want a superpowerful gaming rig at a price that won’t break the bank.
Don't buy it if... You don’t like the word bargain, or you have a tendency to spill coffee on your PC.

CyberPower is a company out to make a name for itself. This machine is stunningly powerful yet boasts the sort of price tag you’d normally find on far lesser machines. In fact, the base system that this machine is built on rolls in at well under a grand, and is nearly as powerful (although not quite the gaming platform that this one is). As is now the norm with such machines, it pays to spend a little time on the site getting the right specification for your needs.

This machine, though, is all about power. Even the case looks serious, with the large fan taking up a good chunk of the rear of the machine. This is needed to keep the internals cool when you’re stressing the machine, but as the fan is so large, it can run fairly slowly (and therefore quietly) in order to do its job.

The Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 at the heart of the machine may not be the fastest model in the world, but as it’s running at 1.86GHz, it’s capable of handling pretty much everything you can throw at it. We found 2GB of RAM is more than enough to play around with, and with a 320GB hard drive as standard, you shouldn’t have any problems holding all your games and data, either.

The basic 920 doesn’t come with a ATi Radeon HD 2900 XT graphics card, but it’s worth the upgrade when the total package still comes in at under £1,000. The HD 2900 XT may not be the fastest graphics card in the world, but it’s more than capable of driving the bundled screen at the maximum resolution, with all the settings turned up. This is ATi’s new Direct X 10 graphics card and, as such, will be able to handle next generation games, too. Factor in the nice big screen, decent keyboard and mouse, and there’s so much right about this system.

High Speed Computers Dark Whisper

Product High Speed Computers Dark Whisper
Price £2,490
Web High Speed Computers

Buy it if... You want one of the fastest machines available, and have the cash to spare.
Don't buy it if... You’re looking for a quad core system, or money is tight.

When money is no object, you start getting into the realms of the weird and wacky, or in the case of the Dark Whisper, the wonderful world of PCs that have been overclocked by the manufacturer. The big deal with this system is that it doesn’t use fancy water cooling to ramp up the speed, instead relying on some clever air cooling, the likes of which is seldom seen outside of engineering labs.

So why would you want to overclock? Well, it gives you better performance out of standard components, which equates to more frames per second in your games, or simply more grunt for your money. While games are becoming more aware of multiple processor cores, many still prefer simply faster cores, and by overclocking the Core 2 Duo E6700 to 3.4GHz, games run smoother and look better. There’s 2GB of lightning-fast Dominator memory running at 1,066MHz as well, and a 500GB hard drive in the box.

One benefit of having this machine air-cooled is that there’s much more room inside the case than there would be with a water-cooled system. This means you can upgrade the components as you go, even adding a second graphics card if needed (though the 8800GTX with its 768MB of RAM is one of the best cards there is).

One problem for the Dark Whisper is that technology is moving at such a rate that this is already looking less extreme than some quad core systems that pack a pair of the same graphics cards in SLI (Scalable Link Interface – potentially doubling graphical oomph by adding a second video card with an identical GPU). Overclocking does provide a serious boost, though, and if you can afford such an extreme, it’s a tempting option.