Think that dual-core PCs are too pricey? We lab-tested six economical desktops that deliver plenty of power.

If you’ve yearned for a dual-core desktop system but have held off buying one because you were deterred by high prices, now is the time to take the plunge. The cost of dual-core processors from AMD and Intel has dropped significantly since they debuted last year, and a good selection of affordable dual-core PCs is currently available. You can shell out less than $1500 and walk away with a robust and powerful system–including a monitor–that’s ready to take on both multitasking and multithreaded applications.

A dual-core machine has two computing cores in one processor package, which allows the system to efficiently work on more than one task at a time. Dual-core processors also boost the performance of multithreaded software, though relatively few applications are written this way.

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