Products: HP

The competition between AMD and Intel still lives. Although industry mavens might wait until the next generation of AMD processors is delivered in early 2009 to make their final technical judgments, current processors such as the quad-core 2.0GHz Opteron 1212 are turning up in cost-effective workstations such as the HP xw4550 series — which starts at a modest $599.

That tab includes 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, DVD burner, and Nvidia Quadro FX 290 or ATI Radeon X1250 graphics card. A more potent version — based on a 2.8GHz Opteron 1220 — prices at $1,349. It includes 4GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and Nvidia's Quadro FX 570 graphics card. The systems also include either Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Linux OS. www.hp.com