Like the KT4 Ultra, the ASUS A7V8X is an Athlon XP board that uses the VIA KT400 chipset. It packs in a truckload of extras, such as Serial ATA, FireWire, Gigabit LAN, AGP 8X and even RAID.

VIA is attempting to tackle Shuttle’s stranglehold on the micro-PC market with the launch of the C3M266 motherboard coupled with a C3 processor...

Gigabyte's new Canterwood-based GA-8KNXP is, without a doubt, one of the most full-featured motherboards we've ever seen. It incorporates all of the basics offered by the MSI 865PE Neo2 (see below) plus more. The differences between the older 845 and new 865 (Springdale) and 875 (Canterwood) chipsets are primarily feature-based – the 875P is designed to be the ultra-high-end option for extreme power users. As such, it's more expensive but has more niche capabilities.

Dell's new Inspiron 5100 delivers a truckload of performance thanks to a 2.8GHz P4 processor, which even managed to outscore the 3GHz Hi-Grade we tested this month.

From five feet away, you'd be forgiven for mistaking Hi-Grade's new Notino for an Apple PowerBook.

Intel's new Centrino is possibly the most hyped notebook technology ever launched. Centrino is the name for a group of Intel's technologies including a tweaked P3-M CPU, built-in wireless, and excellent battery life.

The difference between 'plus' and 'minus' DVD writers comes down to features. Despite some headway being made by the companies pushing DVD-RW, DVD+RW is still a more flexible format for those interested in creating movies and storing data.

Gigabyte Maya 2 R9500 Pro

Acer has taken a different tack to IBM with its version of Centrino. Whereas the ThinkPad focused on being small and portable, the TravelMate 800 is a better-featured notebook with a 1.6GHz processor, 15in display and a fast graphics chip

Dell is never one to be outdone when it comes to cutting edge tech

Panasonic's LF-D521U has a lot in common with the LG drive in this issue – in fact, with the exception of two reading speeds, both drives have identical specifications.

Hi-Grade's new performance-oriented notebook is equipped with a 3.06GHz desktop P4, 60GB HDD, and a gigabyte of RAM. The Ultinote 6600DH displays Hi-Grade's typically first-rate build quality, with solid casing and a good quality TFT screen.

Like the Panasonic LF-D521U, this DVD-RW drive is a generation behind the newest ones on the market. As such it lacks a lot in burning speed – in fact most of the newer models on the market are twice as fast.

Triplex Xabre Ultra 600

This is the kind of workstation that budding 3D artists have wet dreams over. It packs two Hyper-Threaded 3.06GHz Xeon processors – currently the best workstation processors on offer from Intel – a gigabyte of RAM and a 10,000rpm SCSI hard drive. In short, you'll be hard pressed to find a faster workstation without forking out the $15,000 or so for a blazing Silicon Graphics machine.

The 'Ti4800SE' tag of Albatron's graphics card doesn't signify that it's a superior extension of the GeForce4 Ti4600 – in fact, it's really just an NV28 (the AGP 8x of the GeForce4 Ti) version of NVIDIA's Ti4400, coupled with a slightly increased core clock speed.

ATI is the current market leader in graphics chips, and offers four varieties of DirectX 9-capable video cards; these are the company's most sophisticated products when it comes to 3D rendering.

While IBM ThinkPads might look a little bulky and coarse compared to some of their competitors, they've generally got it where it counts; delivering in function if not form.

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?

Hi-Grade's new high-end notebook offers unparalleled performance. Packing a 2.2GHz Pentium 4 and 512MB DDR, it's one tough cookie, and contains a whole herd of ponies under the hood.