Will splashing out on expensive RAM make a real difference to PC performance? And if so, how much should you buy? We supply the benchmarks and lay the details bare

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.

DDR2 is here, but there's more to it than meets the eye. Tim Dean takes a look at the good and bad of tomorrow's memory.

Designed with portability in mind, this notebook is slim, sexy and versatile, enabling basic office usage, DVD playback or even some weekend gaming.

Built around the same sturdy housing as the Targa Traveller C50, Viewmaster's Portiva NVP05 model has a few differentiating properties.

With the slow Australian take-off of the Centrino platform, higher spec, slightly larger form factored units are making their way into the marketplace. Intel's Pentium-M processors are ramping up in speed, now available in 1.7GHz values and still impressing.

The 845PE was supposed to be Intel’s mainstream desktop DDR chipset, although the e7205 (the Granite Bay), and now the 865 and 875, have stolen much of its thunder with dual-channel DDR.

A board with middle-of-the-road features, the NF7-M boasts a well-designed and spacious layout with some nifty additions.

Powered by a 1.6GHz mobile Pentium processor, featuring dual-band 802.11a/g wireless capability and sporting a 15.4in wide-screen display, the Dell D800 represents the best of the Latitude series of notebooks. At around 3.3kg, it is not light, nor is it thin – but is complemented by an exceptional finish and a solid set of technology.

Recently Intel recognised it needed a stop-gap chipset with dual-DDR before the release of the Springdale and Canterwood (865 and 875 respectively).

The Web Powers attempt to look futuristic, with its silver and pastel-blue colour scheme doesnt quite pay off, and it ends up looking a little tacky and cheap instead.

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

A relative newcomer to the PC Authority Labs, Emagen has still managed to make a big impact

DDR (Double Data Rate) RAM is a relative newcomer to the PC as system memory, although it is certainly not a fledgling technology. Graphics cards, and other components that require much higher memory

The speed and quantity of main system memory is another major factor in determining overall system performance. The two most common types are PC100 and PC133, which run at 100MHz and 133MHz respective