Another big name brand PC gets a cutting-edge, all-format, high-def optical drive capable of playing Blu-ray and HD DVD.

A fast, quiet, good-looking PC that's great value.

Fantastic design and highly-configurable power make this XPS useful, desirable and good value.

A stunning design backed up by great performance and good value for money.

A poor performer in the face of HP’s similarly-priced, touch screen-enabled rival.

Dell’s first foray into using AMD processors is a modest performer, but fair value.

Nvidia’s 8800 GTX graphics card is the crowning glory of this very-fast, great-value, PC.

Fast and good value. Gamers and power users will like it.

A good-value and very powerful system that will appeal to those seeking ultimate performance.

Small form factor (SFF) PCs now have their foot well and truly in the home entertainment and IT/CE crossover market due largely to their aesthetics, functionality and quietness of operating volume. Westan's Biostar product looks to continue along these lines, offering a multimedia PC with all the performance of AMD's 64-bit desktop processor architecture.

When we sent out the call for multimedia systems we were expecting notebooks and PCs capable of DVD playback and some basic gaming. Pioneer not only cleared this bar with their submission - they raised it.

Designed from the ground up with gamers in mind, GameVision has produced a fine looking and practical system with plenty of potential. The system is built around Intel’s now legendary 2.4GHz Pentium 4 ’C’ stepping processor, one of the most overclockable chips available on the market. With substantiated overclocks of up to 3.6GHz with stock air-cooling, these unassuming CPUs are powerhouses of frequency, if you know how to milk the most from them.

When we opened the box for the Dream PC from Pioneer, we though there must have been some kind of mistake. Coming in a form factor reminiscent of external hard disk units, the Dream PC packs an entire P4 system in a surprisingly small space, and at 3kg, it weighs less than some notebooks.

You can't help but to notice the slim-line chassis with its brushed aluminium finish this machine sports. Flipping down the front panel reveals the front-mounted audio, USB, and infrared port, which is a nice inclusion for those corporate customers using PDAs or mobile phones with IR synching.

Dell's OptiPlex range is aimed at the corporate market, and traditionally bog-standard and boring boxes with little imagination and componentry to match, but the OptiPlex SX260 is a totally different beast.