If your PC is less of a speed demon and more of a dinosaur then it's time to upgrade your CPU. We put the latest low, mid and high end processors to the test.

We know you want to play games, so we've put 18 PCI Express graphics cards under the microscope to see who really does the job the best.

The emphasis is placed on careful investigation of each environment and the wise selection of appropriate weapons and tools.

There are few boys, and likely some girls, too, that aren’t attracted to the idea of building a castle.

Gone are the innovations introduced in the first game – allowing the player to upgrade specific unit traits via the unit itself; the exciting feel of progressing from one epoch to another and general playability.

The world is Paragon City, in which costumed heroes patrol the skies or walk the streets.

There are always moments in life when you wish you had your camera to hand. The Labs team rounds up the latest pocket cameras.

We’ve all been warned a million times since the dawn of computing – but we’ll knock it into your head once more for posterity: save often.

A familiar plot – meddling with forces beyond our control – and some new weapons greet you as you once again enter the Mars UAC facility.

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.

Dan Chiappini delves into multimedia jargon in our monthly tech term glossary.

Finding a good PC or notebook for the family is not as hard as you might think. PC Authority  puts the latest models to the test.

The D400S packs the usual gear, and offers well-thought out front-mounted FireWire along with 802.11b on/off controls for the optional WLAN device. We were surprised the right-hand side of the chassis contained absolutely no connectivity options – a shame given the inclusion of only a single PCMCIA port. Three USB ports are present – two rear-mounted and one on the left-hand side.

The FX-55 is AMD's top performer. It's a 2.6GHz beast that will eat through current and future games and applications. Its architecture is based on that of the FX-53, which in turn was based on the first generation FX-51, and AMD has come a long way in bringing 64-bit to the desktop.

Despite the processor industry being driven for so long by the now dispelled 'Megahertz Myth', AMD's budget conscious 1.833GHz Sempron 2600+ CPU put in an very good showing.

The creme de la creme of Athlon 64 products, the 4000+ is a socket 939 CPU with all the bells and whistles. This bad boy clocks in at 2.4GHz, features a 1MB L2 cache and 2GB HyperTransport memory interconnect to work in conjunction with its on-die memory controller.

If you're space conscious or limited when it comes to your PC set up then no doubt you've already looked at the TFT display option at some point. We've got three new TFT offerings from three companies in the Labs this month, which should give you a good idea of the state of play of the TFT market at the moment.

IRiver's multi-codec CD player has all the necessary traits required of a high-end personal audio centre. Arriving with a bundle of goodies, the iMP-400 is a stylish unit, with an interesting burgundy and chrome finish.

The control is simple.