The Quadro FX3000 is based on the same NV35 core that powers the latest GeForce FX 5900 cards, but with a few new additions to cater to the professional market. Compared to the older Quadro FX2000, which was based on the NV30, or GeForce FX5800, the FX3000 has double the memory, at 256MB, as well as a 256-bit memory interface, giving double the theoretical graphics bandwidth, hitting just over 27GB/s. It also supports other features from the NV35, including a 128-bit floating-point precision graphics pipeline, 128-bit colour, 12-bit sub-pixel accuracy, 16x full-scene anti-aliasing, 3D volumetric textures, and of course support for all the latest OpenGL, DirectX and NVIDIA’s own Cg graphics language versions.

nVidia GeForce 256

The original Audigy brought ASIO drivers, SB1394 (IEEE 1394) and EAX Advanced HD to the masses, but it was criticised because some people felt betrayed by the 24-bit 96kHz specification, which referred to the DACs rather than the sampling rate.

We road tested the futuristic Azentek SmartMirror and got the feeling that it could be the next big GPS must-have or the next big safety hazard.

The PDA covered so heavily in this months PC Authority has always had a reputation as a primarily functional tool that students and executives use to organise their lives. With this in mind it is interesting to have a look at a product that brings out the lighter, fun side of the PDA.

TI's current workstation-class 3D graphics accelerators - dubbed X1 - are the company's latest effort to keep a hand in the high-end 3D graphics market. Consumer-level 3D hardware is now massively powerful, of course, but for all-out 3D performance and rock-solid driver integration you need a card dedicated to the purpose, and ATI claims the X1-128 is it.

The notebook winner this month was a close call. Two units stood out as being at the top of the multimedia field: the Pioneer D47K and the Acer Aspire 1802WSM. Feature-by-feature they were very closely matched, but we chose the Pioneer for several reasons, one of which was its advanced media capabilities.

The Radeon 7500 is the little brother to the Radeon 8500 and is essentially an enhanced version of the original Radeon card, an example of which was tested in this round-up as a yardstick and included in the performance graphs (pages 50-51). It features the Charisma Engine; ATIs equivalent of the T&L engine found in GeForce-based cards.

This card is the same card as the Bravura Evil Master II, but without the retail extras thrown in. The card itself is a fairly plain-looking affair - a simple green PCB (printed circuit board) with a small cooling fan and heatsink over the GPU, and an array of RAM modules absent of the large RAM heatsinks now commonplace on the NVIDIA models.

Back in September Hercules impressed us all by blowing away the competition in our 3D graphics card Labs..

MP3 with full Environmental Audio support is only part of what this card can offer. Gamers will find this card supports most of the popular standards including DirectSound 3D, EAX 1.0 and above, A3D 1.0 (in software) and Sound Blaster.

A welcome update to the Sound Blaster that can deliver perceptibly better audio than onboard chips, but it goes beyond most people’s needs for PC audio.

Packed with extras to target some of Vista’s interesting new features, but it isn’t quite the marvel we were hoping for.

We love hardware. As users ourselves we feel your pangs of wanting the newest, fastest rig and components. Unfortunately it's hard to justify the cost of bleeding-edge hardware at the best of times - more so with the cost of single graphics cards at times exceeding the $1000 price barrier. This is as much as some users would spend on a total system upgrade.

When we think of SiS graphics, we usually think of low cost, low-end cards or integrated offerings for the entry-level 2D market, with the possibility of some rudimentary 3D capabilities thrown in.

They may be extremely comfortable, but there are quite a few flaws in Creative’s Fatality branded gaming headphones.

Bose-s 3-2-1 is a 2.1 speaker DVD, CD and MP3 CD player whose claim to fame is the ability to produce accurate surround sound from just three speakers. Each satellite contains two discreet drivers that redirect audio in specific directions to mimic 5.1.

A nondescript looking scanner that admits to a 36-bit colour depth, enhanced to 48-bit through its drivers.

Installing and configuring the NB1300 is easy - just plug it in, install the drivers, and you can use the web-based interface to change any necessary settings.