Gateway's low-cost 5310S

The midrange PC in Gateway's current home PC line, the Gateway 5310 series is mostly unremarkable, but that mediocrity helps keep the price down. Starting at $530 for the most bare-bones configuration with no monitor and a 90-day warranty, you can tweak the configs to create reasonably well-powered, home-oriented workhorses. The biggest limitation is the lack of a PCI Express graphics card slot on the motherboard. This absence prevents a Gateway 5310-series PC from competing as a modern gaming PC, and it also limits nongaming capabilities, such as multiple monitor support. Still, if you're looking for a capable, basic home desktop and you know your needs won't come to require 3D graphics processing, we think you'll be satisfied with the configuration and workmanship of our 5310-series review system. It gives you a fair amount of capability for less than $1,000, and it even has room for some nongaming upgrades.