(MONEY Magazine) – Buying a PC that costs much less than average (currently $2,000 or so) used to be a risky proposition. Computermakers riveted together yesterday's technology and knocked a couple hundred dollars off the price. If such machines could run the latest software at all, they did it in something approaching geologic time.

In January all that changed with the introduction of the first two genuinely competitive home computers to break the $1,000 barrier: the Compaq Presario 2100 (pictured here) and the Packard Bell C115. The pair account for an estimated 150,000 of the machines sold between January and March, almost singlehandedly boosting overall computer sales by 6% in February. Packard Bell introduced another sub-$1,000 PC in April; Hewlett- Packard was planning to launch one in May; and Compaq is expected to unveil another entry by midsummer. One reason for the huge demand: Consumers are realizing that buying a $2,500 machine to, say, juggle household finances is the rough equivalent of hiring Stephen Hawking to balance a checkbook.

The Presario 2100 and the C115 have all the features and computing power the average consumer could want, says Josh Bernoff, senior analyst for Forrester Research, a technology research firm in Boston. Both sport zippy 33.6 kbps modems, speedy CD-ROM drives and plenty of memory. And they come loaded with an impressive array of software, including Microsoft Works and Quicken SE. They are Pentium-compatible and run Windows 95, which means you won't have to worry about getting stuck with an outmoded relic six months from now.

If you often work from home and need to store gobs of files, pick the Presario 2100 (price at discounters: $999, plus $299 for the monitor). MONEY found that it has sharper graphics than the C115 and processes information more quickly. You also get eight more megabytes of memory and one gigabyte more of hard-drive space. But if you plan on using your computer primarily to manage your finances, surf the Net and introduce your kids to computing, you'll do fine with the cheaper Pack Bell ($999, including monitor). Our tests showed that it runs certain multimedia games better than the Compaq--making that machine a great choice if you want to have a little fun too.

--Tripp Reynolds