We know you want to play games, so we've put 18 PCI Express graphics cards under the microscope to see who really does the job the best.

If your PC is less of a speed demon and more of a dinosaur then it's time to upgrade your CPU. We put the latest low, mid and high end processors to the test.

A basic barebones motherboard with a price to match, ASROCK's P4VT8 Pentium 4 motherboard may not be the most feature packed mobo around, but what it lacks in integrated components, it more than makes up for with its bargain basement price tag and practical applications.

The big feature that sets the 6200TC apart from the 6600's and 6800's is the addition of TurboCache. Currently, graphics cards are typically limited to the memory on the graphics card, but TurboCache opens the door to your PC's system memory.

In the market for a new gaming rig for playing the latest games? PC Authority has the answer to your gaming performance woes with five of the hottest machines around.

ABIT's take on the X700 chipset was the least expensive by a good margin of the three we received. In our benchmarks, it topped 3DMark01, and even outperformed the speedier 6600GT's.

Shuttle's push on the small form factor market has seen the PC finally migrate from the bedroom to become an integral part of the lounge room and entertainment set up. Capable of a number of varied roles, these include file servers, HDTV receiving boxes and media streaming machines.

IBM has a well-earned reputation within the corporate sector for providing exceptional quality desktop workstations. Their latest model – the ThinkCentre S50, is set to keep that reputation on track.

Where XFX rose early with the DirectX 8 tests and dropped off in the DirectX 9.0 tests, this card did the exact opposite - it jumped up five places to the middle of the pack in 3DMark05.

NVIDIA has been criticised for its oversized graphics cards, but the shoe is on the other foot this time with HIS putting a truly massive cooler on its X800 XT card.

The X800XT PE is ATI's flagship technology, and its main change over the standard X800 XT is a core frequency increase from 500MHz to 520MHz, and a memory increase from 500MHz to 560MHz. Consequently, it performs better than the standard X800 XT's, topping all the benchmarks and achieving a phenomenal 26588 marks in 3DMark01 in 1024 x 768.

Given NVIDIA's close development with id Software on Doom 3 we weren't all that surprised to see a member of the undead emblazoned across the front of the packaging, but we were surprised to find a treat inside.

Notebooks have been an essential tool for the workforce for years and are becoming a popular entertainment platform. While it’s rare that you’ll find a portable workstation that provides enough grunt for gaming, Intel may just have the answer with its new breed of mobile technolgy – Sonoma.

The 9300 is reminiscent of its predecessor, the Inspiron 9100, which was pitched squarely at power users and gamers looking for plenty of grunt. This product refresh takes it one step further by using a mobile processor rather than the desktop CPU found in the 9100.

We love hardware. As users ourselves we feel your pangs of wanting the newest, fastest rig and components. Unfortunately it's hard to justify the cost of bleeding-edge hardware at the best of times - more so with the cost of single graphics cards at times exceeding the $1000 price barrier. This is as much as some users would spend on a total system upgrade.

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