Are you kicking around an old clunky PC that looks like a relic from the Stone Age? Google Zeitgeist (www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html) tells us that while Windows XP accounted for 46 percent of the OSs used to search Google during February 2004, 24 percent were still using Windows 98 and Windows 95, indicating there are still a lot of late-1990s PCs kicking around. Even if you’re running something from the 1GHz days, it’s probably time to think about an upgrade. But it can easily get to the point where you’re upgrading just about every component. In that case, you should seriously consider looking at the excellent bargains available in new PCs today.

Play your video, photo and music files on your TV from a networked PC. We put five network players to the test