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.

The Techmart SOHO is the only system in this roundup to be supplied with a copy of Windows XP Home rather than XP Professional. This highlights Intermedia's emphasis on the small office, home office environment with this system, where the additional networking features of XP Pro aren't necessary. Even so, it does mean you'll be restricted to using a peer-to-peer network, and you'll need an upgrade if you ever want to set up a client-server system. For the extra $90, it might be worth future-proofing and upgrading to Pro.

Intel has promised that Hyper-Threading (HT) will deliver increased efficiency and decrease the amount of time taken to accomplish multiple processes. But is it really all that it’s cracked up to be?

Emagens offering was the fastest PC overall this month.

Intel has promised that Hyper-Threading (HT) will deliver increased efficiency and decrease the amount of time taken to accomplish multiple processes. But is it really all that it's cracked up to be?

The CWS SuperPro S3 has some very nice components under the hood: its equipped with the fastest Athlon XP in this months crop (a 2100+), 512MB of PC2100 DDR and an 80GB HDD.

A powerful high-end suite with a lot of potential. Make sure you have a high-end system to run it as the listed system requirements are very optimistic.

HP’s latest PC blends power, useful business features and a keen eye for detail

A promising debut for UMPCs, but the controls are tricky to master

Whisper quiet, well built and well designed, but a lack of power and expandability will keep enthusiasts away.

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.

Amazingly good value for what you get: a fully-featured, dual-core, ergonomic notebook.

It’s great value and will tempt some people thanks to its size and multimedia abilities.

An impressive touchscreen all-in-one PC for an equally impressive price, but the single-core Atom holds it back

While this system may not be the highest performer overall in the group, it still represents very good value for money, as demonstrated by its above average 112 Value score.

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.

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.

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

Photoshop moves beyond photo editing to conquer completely new territory.

Powerful new versions of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and now Acrobat 8 Professional too.