Sixteen notebooks under $2500, we've separated the winners with the goods from the less impressive performers.

Gauging a USB memory key's value is a fairly simple procedure, right? They plug into any available USB 2.0 port and off you go, however it isn't as clear-cut as that.

We've taken seven top business PCs and run them through their paces to find out which should be your next upgrade.

Unlike many of our performance-based Labs, business workstations are a whole different world of PCs, focusing not on the maximum number of frames per second, or how many overall points they can churn out in any given benchmarking utility.

Benchmarking PCs is a tricky business. You need to ensure that you stress the systems, but also that the results you get will be relevant in the real world. Previously we have relied heavily on BAPCo's SYSmark2002 for simulating home and office use, with programs such as Excel, Word, Outlook, and web content through Adobe Premiere and Macromedia Dreamweaver. However, due to SYSmark's history of instability as well as the sheer length of time it takes to complete a run, we have put it on the backburner in favour of PCMark04 for this Labs.

Evaluating barebones systems is quite different from performance-based testing using benchmarks. As such, we opted to do a feature-based roundup, covering all aspects of the hardware, including but not limited to: build quality, ease of install, and included feature sets.

How much notebook will $2500 actually buy you? The PC Authority Labs team investigates.

Every office, whether it is a small, medium or large corporate environment, needs a printer for its day-to-day operations - this is a given. Despite the cliché that is the paperless office, streamlined electronic information exchange and the continued sales of inkjet and laser printers would suggest this is still not a reality and we think it may not be for some time.

When evaluating multi-function devices there are four determining factors for ascertaining who has really got the goods. These are speed, quality, features and price.

Testing anti-virus software is a tricky endeavour at the best of times, due to the inherent nasty nature of the test subject. For this anti-virus roundup, we asked independent anti-virus testing lab, AV-Test.org (www.av-test.org) to conduct the testing for us in their controlled environments. AV-Test.org has access to thousands of viruses, and is a respected anti-virus testing lab.

Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth that emanates from the bowels of music industry boardrooms, technologies and devices that enhance the portability of music continue to grow in popularity. The concern is not over the proliferations of the gadgets themselves, it's about the files that are loaded onto them, which have flooded peer-to-peer networks, cardboard boxes under flea market counters and the hard drives of computer users across the world.

This drive was the poorest performer in our roundup - but, as with its 200GB SATA cousin, the specifications were honest in pointing out the fact.

One of the largest form factor printers in our roundup, HP’s Colour LaserJet 1500L has a giant footprint. Although not unattractive, with a purple ramp-like front cover, be prepared to sacrifice a reasonably sized piece of office real estate for this printer.

Absolutely blitzing the competition, Altech takes out our highly coveted Labs Winner Award, just beating IBM to the top spot. Heavy on both the features and quality, this unit was one of only three units in the roundup to feature a 17in TFT display, with the others, the Pluscorp INTEQ V26 and Apple iMac, falling by the wayside on price, hardware spec and performance.

One of the mantras of business computing is reliability. It all ties into TCO (total cost of ownership) - if a mission critical PC suffers a hardware failure, the resulting downtime can cost you a lot more than the price of an entire new system. As such, we in the PC Authority Labs always place a high emphasis on a good on-site warranty, such as that provided by a few manufacturers this month, including Pluscorp with its INTEQ V26.

This month, the PC Authority Labs team looks at a colourful range of printers suitable for the small-medium office market.

Store it in your pocket. PC Authority takes fifteen USB drives for a spin around the block.

Capacity? Value for money? Who's got what? Read on to find out who has the best marriage of both.

With no sign of the end of the format war coming to pass anytime soon, prices continue to fall and we’ve got the latest models to take a look at.

This month we’ve taken 12 of the fastest optical drives, run them through their paces and sorted the award winners from the less than impressive performers.