Whether you're e-mailing family and friends, balancing your online checkbook, or listening to your digital music collection, Compaq's SR1300NX offers all the power and versatility you need for a home desktop PC. Focusing on affordability, the SR1300NX has room to grow with the ability to add up to 1 GB of RAM and a wide variety of peripherals via its seven USB 2.0 ports. It comes loaded with a 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of installed RAM, 2.0 GHz AMD Sempron 3000+ processor, a CD burner, and a multiformat memory card reader that's compatible with today's most popular digital camera formats. The Basics Hard Drive: While it offers more than enough room for everyday computing needs and a decent-sized multimedia library, the 60 GB hard drive (7200 RPM) is small compared to other desktop PCs in this range. However, you can boost your storage space by adding optional external hard drives via the USB 2.0 or Firewire ports. A lower-end cousin to AMD's XP processor line, the 2.0 GHz AMD Sempron 3000+ found in this desktop is compatible in speed with Intel's 2.8 GHz Celeron processor. It's speedy enough for everyday computing needs and running office productivity software, but won't be quite enough for higher-end video editing or 3D gaming. It also features a 1600 MHz front-side bus (FSB) and a 256 KB L2 cache. (An L2, or secondary, cache temporarily stores data; and a larger L2 cache can help speed up your system's performance.) Memory: The installed 256 MB (PC2700) is underpowered for today's demanding office productivity and multimedia applications and immersive 3D games. You'll want to take advantage of the 1 GB total RAM capability (2 x 512 MB); however, maxing this out requires the replacement of the installed 256 MB DIMM. CD/DVD Drive: To keep this desktop as affordable as possible, the SR1300NX comes with just a CD-RW drive, which can burn audio, video, and data files to CD (instead of a combo DVD/CD drive). It has a fast 48x read/write speed and a 32x rewrite speed. Keyboard & Mouse: This desktop PC comes with the Compaq Productivity keyboard and scroller mouse, both of which connect to the PS/2 ports on the back of the machine. Graphics and Sound The SR1300NX features audio and video cards that are integrated into the computer's main board. The sound card uses the AC'97 (Audio Codec '97) standard (configurable to 6 channels of audio). The video/graphics card has up to 64 MB of shared video memory. It is suitable for good range of gaming graphics and multimedia video playback, but might not stack up for ultra-realistic 3-D PC games. Connectivity and Expansion Slots For expansion, the SR1300NX has two 5.25-inch external bays (one available), one external 3.5-inch bay (one available) and one internal 3.5-inch bay (occupied), three PCI slots (two available), and one AGP slot (available). It comes with a built-in floppy drive and the following external connectors: 7 USB 2.0 ports (3 in front, 4 in rear) for connecting a wide range of peripherals--from digital cameras to MP3 players 1 FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394 or i.Link) port for connecting digital video camcorders and other peripherals 1 parallel port for connecting older printers and scanners 1 serial port for older peripherals such as early PDAs 2 PS/2 ports for connecting keyboards and mice 1 VGA monitor port 1 microphone, 1 headphone 1 line-out, and 1 line-in jack 9-in-1 media card reader on the front, compatible with CompactFlash (Type I and II), MicroDrive, SmartMedia, Memory Stick/Memory Stick Pro, MultiMedia Card, Secure Digital, and XD Picture Card It also has an integrated 56K modem (V.90) and an RJ-45 LAN network port (for a 10/100 Ethernet connection to networks and DSL/cable modems). Preloaded System and Software This system comes with the Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 2 operating system with Advanced Security Technologies, which helps to reduce unwanted dow