The corporate PC is not the square, off-white box it once was. Like the consumer desktop, it's often black, sometimes with silver trim, and usually rounded at the edges. But don't let this softer look fool you; its effectiveness hasn't been softened in the slightest.
Today's corporate PCs still ship with excellent management software, letting you take system inventory, monitor important components, and update software over a network. The chassis can still be opened sans tools, letting you quickly add or remove hardware. (Our review systems all have relatively small cases, however, which don't allow for much internal upgrading.) Multiple form factors within a line can all use the same software image. Also, these PCs have long life cycles (12 to 15 months), so you can often purchase one system now and one a year from now and load them both with the same software image.
Here we review five popular corporate desktops for under $1,300 from the leading corporate PC vendors: Compaq, Dell, Gateway, IBM and MicronPC. Each machine in this roundup includes a Pentium 4 processor, 512MB of DDR SDRAM, an integrated Intel 845G graphics chip set, and at least four USB ports. But there are a few differences that stand out. The IBM unit uses a slightly slower CPU than the other three but ships with a larger monitor. The MicronPC machine doesn't offer as much storage space, but unlike its competitors, it has a CD-RW drive and a flat-panel display.
Each vendor backs its machine with a slightly different set of corporate services and includes a slightly different set of management tools, but all are suitable for use on your corporate LAN. We've rated each desktop on its features, performance, management suites, upgradability, and levels of support.