Looking to build your dream machine? We explore the latest components on the market, and give you advice on which ones to hunt down, along with the general price you can expect to pay for each major component.

An old PC is like putty in your hands. Tim Dean looks at how you can shape it into a new system with a few easy upgrades.

The 915 is an good budget choice, but elsewhere this family is eclipsed by newer offerings.

Chip giant Intel has announced that it would introduce a model numbering scheme across its consumer CPU range.

In its day, it held the speed crown, but today’s dual-core CPUs leave it trailing for power, efficiency and value.

Once again it is time for the PC Authority Labs team to cast their critical eye over the latest and greatest that Intel has to offer, in terms of PCs based around its new Pentium 4 processor. One reas

Prepare to say goodbye to the Pentium as we reveal the next generation

Over a year ago, the PC Authority Labs team was speculating about the possible union of DDR-RAM with the Pentium 4 processor as an alternative to the problematic pairing with RDRAM. While many of the

Chance or coincidence? AMD releases the Athlon 64, specifically targeted at the consumer performance market, and only days later Intel announces a secret processor aimed squarely at the same MHz-hungry community: the Pentium 4 Extreme Edition (P4EE).

You’ll see a lot of hype surrounding the 3.06GHz Pentium 4, and doubtless you’ll see benchmark scores for the new processor. If you do, regard them with a heavy degree of skepticism because all is not rosy with this chip.

PC Authority takes a trip down computer memory lane and discovers just how PC technology has evolved... and how Microsoft and IBM nearly destroyed each other.

A range of cut-down Core 2 Duo processors that are fine for everyday tasks.

The latest iteration of the Pentium 4, code named Prescott, is an interesting development for a few reasons. First off, it represents Intel's entry to the world of 90nm (90 nanometre, or 0.09 micron) fabrication for processors. For the uninitiated, all this means is the size of individual components on the processor core have been shrunk to even smaller levels. It's a natural part of processor evolution to shrink the size of components, as it allows more transistors to be packed into a smaller space, reduces heat and resistance, and this all leads to faster CPUs.

Can’t decide between an Eee and a Wind? A Mini note or an Aspire One? Believe it or not, there’s a bunch of old school smaller laptops that may do the job for less money. We took a look at 7 old school ultraportables.

What job involves acid baths, robots and space suits? Read about the fascinating world of computer chip fabrication, with PC Authority’s exclusive imagery and insights.

Slightly less sturdy than previous Dell models we have seen, the D500 is finished in attractive silver bezel housing, the keyboard is comfortable to use and offers all the functionality of standard-sized desktop keyboards.

The Athlon XP 2700+ represents a significant leap forward for the Athlon line – it solves a long-term problem by stepping up the default frontside bus (FSB) speed from 266MHz to 333MHz. This means that the Athlon XP can finally run in sync with 333MHz DDR RAM. While most currently available Athlon motherboards support 333MHz DDR, there is virtually no performance boost between this and 266MHz DDR when running an Athlon XP with a 266MHz FSB. The extra speed offered by the RAM quite simply goes to waste, because the CPU can't keep up with it.

Your PC is only as good as your last upgrade, and this is truer than ever with current gaming and software applications milking machines for everything they're worth.

A year ago you would have been laughed at for dreaming of a notebook clocking in at 1GHz. But the 1GHz mobile processor duly arrived midyear, leaving us pondering what the next step was.