New eMachines desktops: Small in size and price

New models just announced by eMachines, the budget desktop brand, emphasize size (as in small), style (as in sleek), and price (as in really low).

Sure, the new offerings cut back in power, but for many households it’s possible that a system with 1GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and a low-power AMD Athlon processor is sufficient—especially if it costs only $398 with a 20-inch LCD, as does the new EL1300G-02w desktop.

The company claims the EL1300G-02w is one-third the size of a regular desktop. And it comes loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista.

Want to save another hundred bucks? The EL1300G-01w costs just $298, about $30 more than the Compaq nettop in our Ratings. This eMachines system uses the same Athlon as the EL1300G-02w, while the Compaq uses an Atom processor typically used in netbooks and nettops. The EL1300G-01w has 2GB of memory, a 160GB hard drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic. It does not include a monitor.

We’ll be testing the EL1300G-01w soon; we’ll let you know how it stacks up. —Donna Tapellini