HCL Busybee 2000

At Rs 31,990 this was the cheapest PC in its category. It’s based on an Intel-810 chipset based motherboard with onboard graphics and sound, 64 MB RAM, and a PIII/750 processor. It also has an onboard 10/100 Ethernet port–an essential component for an office, and a 56 k D-link modem. On the flip side though, the PC comes with a 14” HCL monitor and no CD-ROM drive, thereby losing a few points in features.

In terms of performance, the Busybee 2000 stood average in both Business and Content Creation Winstone benchmarks. Perhaps the main reason for this is its lowest CPU speed of the lot. Its performance/price ratio was also not so great, despite the low price, due to the performance score.

The PC ships with a Windows 98 CD and lots of bundled software like Norton AntiVirus, Etutor, and a productivity suite called Impression. It also comes with a comprehensive one-year warranty. Overall, it’s an attractive PC for the office with all the essentials integrated, but average in performance.