Graphics card manufacturers’ obsession with multi-GPU boards continues this month. The Asus HD 3850 X2 brings to market the novel formula of two ATi Radeon 3850 GPUs on one card.

With so many factors to consider, choosing a motherboard can be a bewildering exercise. We put 11 models through their pace to find the ultimate in performance, flexibility and value

A simple board that struggles to justify its price

All the options you could want, although it’s pricey

An uninspiring board with no strong selling point

A capable little package at an attractive price

A slightly bare but affordable media-centre board

Cheap, but there’s not much here to cheer about

A feast of features for those willing to pay

A high-end board bristling with great ideas

Plenty of connectors, but not much pizzazz

An appealingly upmarket board at a fair price

A great combination of features at an excellent price makes this our new A-List board - suitable for just about everyone.

There may be two main CPU manufacturers, but picking the right processor is anything but simple. We put 51 CPUs through their paces

A range of cut-down Core 2 Duo processors that are fine for everyday tasks.

A diverse family including some stellar CPUs and numerous also-rans.

A cheap, lightweight choice for single-core applications, but you get the performance you pay for.

A smartly engineered processor, but for today’s applications it’s lacking in bang per buck.

An old standard, but one that still provides decent performance at a great price.