While AMD has been waving hybrid 32/64-bit CPUs for some time now, speculation has risen over when Intel would unleash their product onto an already expecting market. Here it is, Intel's newest addition to their Extreme Edition clocking in at an impressive 3.73GHz and boasting a 2MB L3 cache.

The GeForce3 chip is quite an incredible thing.

Another cracking Panasonic flatscreen, which impresses with both its integrated TV tuners and external sources

Great real-time performance, particularly with high definition footage. But the EDIUS Pro software still needs a few more features to usurp the competition.

Slim and stylish, this isn’t the most powerful quad core we’ve seen, but it’s by far the cheapest.

Despite some odd feature choices, this is an affordable powerhouse of a laptop. A great value mid-range Centrino 2 laptop, as long as you're not worried about battery life.

In the workstation graphics market, the name 3Dlabs carries considerable weight, and its Wildcat III series of OpenGL cards continues to be dominating in the high-end workspace. However, in the mid-range sector, NVIDIAs Quadro2 and Quadro4, and ATIs FireGL 8800 have made serious inroads. The new Wildcat VP870 looks set to redress the balance, thanks to a brand-new GPU that takes programmability to a new level.

The battle for position in the palm-sized PC market is set to explode in the coming year, and Compaq is determined to lead

Ableton’s flair for innovation shows no sign of diminishing. This is the best version of Live yet.

Easy to set up and administer; has all the advantages which Linux offers.

Not so long ago, Pinnacle concentrated on manufacturing graphics hardware and bundling third-party software with it. These days the company provides its own digital video editing software and makes no bones about competing with Adobe's Premiere.

Viewmaster's 17in LCD is decidedly average in price, but it still manages to deliver quite an impact with good features and a quality Acer TFT screen.

LCD monitors look pretty slick, and beat most of the competition on looks alone.

Award-winning TV with exceptional picture quality, although it has now been replaced by Panasonic's 2008 range

It lacks the frills of others here, but the Toshiba is ideal if you want a 17in screen at the lowest price.

A huge screen and an affordable price, but it doesn’t rival a desktop PC where power is concerned

In appearance the Olympus Camedia is rather ordinary, mirroring closely what is standard fare in the conventional SLR field, and perhaps even a little dated. This however belies the superior performance that the Olympus put in this month, which impressed the Labs team enough to award it with the Labs Award for Quality.

A compact workgroup laser suited to high-volume colour and mono printing, but delivering average photo quality

A blisteringly fast processor, strong build and stylish design make this an extremely attractive laptop

The C5600n handles colour-related tasks well and at a price that makes it affordable for small businesses.