Dell's OptiPlex range is aimed at the corporate market, and traditionally bog-standard and boring boxes with little imagination and componentry to match, but the OptiPlex SX260 is a totally different beast.

This is a machine you'd be proud to own as a home user, and ecstatic to have on your desk at work. Its design evokes the Gateway Profile all-in-one systems released in 1999 and 2000, but a lot has changed since then.

Borrowing much from notebook technology to keep the system size down, this SX260 runs a 2.4GHz Pentium 4 desktop processor with 512MB of SDRAM. Its other specs are a mix of high to low-end components, with its DVD/CD-RW Combo drive sitting highly but its 20GB 5,400rpm notebook hard drive and integrated graphics too pedestrian for its excellent TFT.

This 15in Ultrasharp TFT screen comes with a solid steel stand, onto which you slot the PC chassis. Image quality is good for business work, but not quite up there for multimedia or other apps that require fast response times.

With six USB ports, it has plenty of options for expansion and gadgetry, yet for some the lack of expandability (no PCI, no AGP) and price may be detrimental. Great design but confusing specs.