Micro Express MicroFlex 23B: Budget Desktop In Name (and Price) Only

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Lots of room for future upgrades
Fantabulous functioning

Our Verdict

Micro Express's latest budget car bucks the category trends—altogether the rectify ways.

When you think of a budget desktop, what comes to intellect? Integrated graphics, very few ports, and an extremely boring case, right? Recovered the Micro Express MicroFlex 23B does have an extremely boring case, but it's otherwise a pleasant surprise–with a discrete graphics card and USB ports to spare–considering it's labeled "budget."

The MicroFlex 23B costs just $600 (as of 5/26/11), but has some impressive features for the Price. Sure, there's the 3.3GHz Light-haired Bridge Intel Core i3-2120 processor, the 4GB of Jampack, and the 500GB disc drive, but none of these features are particularly out of the MicroFlex 23B's price point. However, the Blu-ray drive and the AMD Radeon HD 6670 are nice touches, not to mention the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium and a pair of USB 3.0 ports.

This budget background delivers connected performance, A well: in PCWorld's Humankind Bench 6 benchmark tests, the organisation scored an gallant 141. For comparison's sake, that's more than 10 points high than the Lenovo H320, which presently holds the number ace spot along our list of top 10 budget desktops. The Lenovo H320 is all but $100 more expensive than the MicroFlex 23B, but it also has an additional 2GB of Drive in and Core i5 processor, though information technology is an older, Clarkdale model.

Though this system is by no way a gaming system, it still manages to blast by other budget PCs in terms of graphics. In our Unreal Tournament 3 tests, the MicroFlex 23B managed a decent 42.6 frames per second (fps), running connected highest prime at a screen resolve of 2560 aside 1600 pixels. The Lenovo H320 managed an unplayable 16 fps on the same settings, while the HP Pavilion s5660f (our number two budget PC) couldn't ekes out 11 fps. In fact, the MicroFlex 23B's frame rates actually put the system within competing distance of our lower-end Mainstream desktops.

The MicroFlex 23B is housed in a rather plain black aluminum chassis–in fact, it's the same chassis as the MicroFlex 25B. The front of the case is smooth and fatal and has rounded meshing edges with a couple of illogical blue lights. There are five expansion bays–one is occupied by the Blu-beam of light beat back–power and reset buttons, a multi-formatting card reader bay, and a few convenience ports. The frontmost of the computer has a total of three USB ports, mike and headphone jacks, and a FireWire larboard.

On that point are more ports connected the punt of the organization, including ii USB 3.0 ports and six additional USB ports. There's also an SPDIF out, an eSATA port, another FireWire port, Gigabit Ethernet, and financial backing for 5.1 surround sound. There are also two Postscript/2 ports–one for shiner, and one for keyboard–which is surprising, considering the system ships with USB-wired peripherals. The peripherals are canonic and unimpressive: a three-button optical mouse and a flat, fairly tranquillity keyboard. The Radeon HD 6600 can be hooked capable a display via Display Port wine, HDMI proscribed (a skillful touch), or DVI.

Though the MicroFlex 23B's exterior mightiness Be somewhat of a letdown, its interior is sure not. This scheme is totally ready to accept a ton of upgrades. The home is roomy and uncluttered, with four free 5.25-inch bays, three free 3.5 inch bays, same free PCI slot, cardinal liberate PCIe x16 slots, and two free PCIe x1 slots (though one is plugged by the graphics card. There are also two free RAM slots.

Software-wise, the MicroFlex 23B is pretty typical. You do come CyberLink Blu-radiate platter software and LightScribe magnetic disk labeling software (this allows you to burn designs straightaway on unscheduled types of media).

Dead each, Little Convey's MicroFlex 23B is an first-class deal. It's more than just a solid performer–it out-performed several of our mainstream desktops in our WorldBench 6 tests (not to mention all of our budget desktops). If you're not also keen on a sexy chassis, on that point's No reason not to take a look at the MicroFlex 23B for your basic and beyond basic computing needs.