MSI Wind Top AE2010

MSI Wind Top AE2010 All-in-One PC

MSI's Wind Top AE2010 ($650, as of December 8, 2009) is one of our favorite new budget all-in-one PCs. It has a 20-inch single-touch display, Windows 7, and 4GB of memory; it ditches the Atom CPU for a 1.5GHz Athlon X2 Dual-Core 3250e processor; and it is among the best-performing budget all-in-one PCs (20-inches or smaller) we've seen. But we've got a few concerns, too. The display's glossy coating creates an annoying reflection of yourself whenever a scene goes dark, and it makes the darker contrasts of a movie or game less rich than you would otherwise see. You also lose detail in darker scenes, as the screen itself has a kind of gray quality to it if you're setting up the system in a room with average lighting. The AE2010's saturation is good, but not great--scenes are colorful enough to appear fine; however, competing all-in-one systems offer more vibrant looks. The AE2010's built-in speakers are a bit worse than those found on your average laptop--not exactly a strong point when you're looking to bust out the movies and the popcorn. But at least the display is touch-enabled, albeit single-touch.