The Gateway SX2380-UR318 is a great choice for the price-conscious PC buyer. It has a lot of the features that were optional only a few years ago, like DX11-compatible graphics, 1TB hard drive, dual core AMD A6-5400K processor, 6GB of memory, and dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi.

If your workspace is tight, and your budget even tighter, consider the HP Pavilion 20-b010z. This all-in-one desktop PC offers middling performance and a mediocre feature set but that's why it's so inexpensive. Its AMD APU is a low-end processor and it only comes with 2GB of RAM, but it's more than adequate for basic home productivity tasks such as email, web surfing, and word processing.

The Dell XPS One 27 Touch is a high-end all-in-one desktop PC that gets Windows 8 right. It starts off by helping you learn how to use the new operating system; plus its touch interface makes sense in the new tiled Start screen environment. Add a speedy Core i7 processor and feature set that lets you run faster and farther than other all-in-one PCs.

The Toshiba Satellite LX835 is an all-in-one desktop PC with a 23-inch touch screen display that is really the only good thing about this PC, which is unfortunate. Toshiba chose to use a mobile CPU, which really limits performance and the included peripherals feel really cheap.

The HP Envy 23-d060qd TouchSmart is HP's latest evolution of its veteran all-in-one PC line. Filled to the brim with technology, the ENVY 23-060qd is a built-to-order system with a speedy quad-core processor, upgraded 3D graphics, loads of system memory, a huge hard drive, and a 1080p touch screen.

The HP Spectre One is an eye-catching 23-inch Windows 8 desktop PC that has a very iMac-like design. It has an Intel i5, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, so it's definitely got enough power for anyone. Surprisingly it lacks a touch screen, which is really the only thing holding back this PC.

Viewing Apple's iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) desktop from the front, it looks at first as if Apple is doing the same thing to the iMac that it did with the new Mac Mini: updating the internal hardware but leaving the exterior unchanged. Thanks to upgraded hardware and a new internal design, it is faster and more responsive, offering larger, smarter storage.

The new Apple Mac mini may look the same—it is, after all identical to the Mac mini (Thunderbolt)—but it has been updated with Intel's latest Ivy Bridge processor, faster USB 3.0 ports, and given a performance boost with Apple's new Fusion drive. It's everything we loved about the Apple Mac mini (Thunderbolt), just faster.

The Toshiba LX835-D3230 is a speedy, if utilitarian all-in-one desktop PC. It may be all you need for shared family computing, at least until Windows 8 touch-enabled PCs start to enter the market. It has a bright HD-quality screen, quad core power, and could be a decent kitchen PC.

The HP Pavilion 23-1000z is a 23-inch all-in-one PC that aims to get ahead of the competition by being budget-priced and having good all-around performance. However, the budget price does come at a sacrifice of some features other similar PCs have, like an HDMI-input.