Taiwanese computer maker Shuttle has ended a distribution relationship with Sato Technology, instead opting to run with only two distributors in Australia, Altech and Multimedia Technology (MMT).

Another notebook to embrace the entertainment market and sell units with widescreen 16:10 aspect ratio displays, this PowerNote packs some serious hardware under the hood, pushing not only AMD's Mobile Athlon 64 3200+ processor, but also ATI's Mobility RADEON 9700 a 60GB, 7200rpm hard disk drive and a multiformat 4-speed DVD burner for disc creation on the go.

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.

Nominating Sato as our winner for the desktop machines this month was fairly straightforward, especially when compared to deciding the outcome of the closely-fought notebook war. Because, even though the Sato was outdone by one or two systems in terms of performance, nothing beat it on pure value for money.

IT wholesaler Altech has signed up as the second Australian distributor for Taiwanese computer maker Shuttle. Under the arrangement, Altech would be distributing the company's line of "XPC" small form factor bare-bones PCs.

We were hoping we'd have at least one small form factor system submitted for review, and SATO and Friction came together to supply the Draco-M3.