In the market for a new gaming rig for playing the latest games? PC Authority has the answer to your gaming performance woes with five of the hottest machines around.

The cheapest system to be submitted for review in our performance roundup, it just goes to show that even $4000 will get you a hell of a lot of PC for your money. PCQUEST has also opted to go with a CoolerMaster case, both for its attractive looks and functionality, this housing able to hold a massive five optical drives and four hard disk drives, erring on the side of more is better.

One of the most striking things about Pioneer’s entry this month is the cosmetics: it’s 24hr karaoke bar meets street-racing BMW. And lots of blue LEDs! And these LED’s can get a little annoying – especially the super bright “headlight” LED’s. They shine directly ahead, and at desk height they beam straight into your eyes. There is also a large, illuminated ‘Xfinity’ etched into the front door of the case. Suffice to say this case won’t be to everyone’s taste. But otherwise, the rest of the externals are OK – the top mount houses two of the six total USB ports beneath a tidy flap, and a large power button with a good action.

Very narrowly pipped for the top placing Labs winner award this month, Plus offers an impressive performing gaming machine with all the bells and whistles you'd expect to find at this price point. Wrapped in the attractive Cooler Master Cavalier wave housing, there's no ultra portability to be found here. The clear advantage of moving away from small form factor housing is not being starved for space internally.

It’s one of the facts of the gaming hobbyist’s life: cutting edge games require cutting edge hardware. It’s as set in stone as Moore’s Law (which is itself now 40 years old). Every 12 to 18 months you need to upgrade or get left behind. Our contenders this month make a very good case for starting with a clean slate, and none more so than this month’s winner, the Modtech Civic-64FX.

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.

We've put AMD and Intel’s new processors to the test, and there's one clear winner.

Still not sure whether it's worth upgrading to Vista? We put XP and Vista through the ultimate face-off.

An old PC is like putty in your hands. Tim Dean looks at how you can shape it into a new system with a few easy upgrades.

Our unparalleled test of mobile broadband returns, comparing the three fastest services on offer in Australia. Read PC Authority's full comparative results drawn from exhaustive testing with real-world data.

Climb the steps all the way to Windows guru status with our invaluable selection of tips and shortcuts for XP and Vista.

You’ve been asking us for more info about what Intel’s new CPU will mean for those upgrading in the next 12 months. Here’s what you need to know.

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 future of Internet access is now. The idea of connecting cables to a computer to enable a connection will soon seem as archaic as manually cranking the engine of an automobile. Ed Dawson samples a cross-section of bleeding-edge wireless broadband services and cuts through the hype.

Keep your hard drives defragmented

Prepare to say goodbye to the Pentium as we reveal the next generation

Squeeze that extra bit of power out of your existing hardware. Tim Dean looks at the principles of overclocking and examines the potential performance increase.

The notebooks were subjected to several benchmarks to give an objective evaluation of their speeds, performance and applicability.

Intel unloaded a swag of new Penryn-class CPUs at CES today. Zara Baxter explores the new platform and what it means for your PC.

Like most Gateway machines, the case is solid and the internal layout is very clean offering plenty of space to get in and exchange components or install drives.