Acer Aspire iDea 510
Great design and comprehensive features make it a truly great Media Center PC. Only the price lets it down.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Standard
Powerful new versions of InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, and now Acrobat 8 Professional too.
Adobe Illustrator CS3
An improved working environment and ground-breaking colour handling make Illustrator fresher than ever.
Adobe InDesign CS3
New effects enable richer design results, while a host of other improvements boost productivity.
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Non-destructive image processing and creative filters feature in this comprehensive upgrade to the market leader.
Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Photoshop moves beyond photo editing to conquer completely new territory.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1
Fantastic looks and comprehensive features Lightroom is a winner for improving workflow efficiency.
Antec P180
Considering the features on offer, the P180 is a superb bargain at this price.
Antec Solo
Affordable, yet punches above its price for quality and features. Ideal for a quiet PC.
Colin McRae Dirt
The venerable Colin McRae series gets a total overhaul, marking a high point in the series.
Command and Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars
Simple classic fun with a healthy dose of nostalgia for good measure.
Cooler Master ITower 930
Quick-release hard disks can’t make up for design flaws.
Dell Latitude ATG
A good first stab at the semi-ruggedised laptop market. It isn’t up to the tough standards of others, though.
Feeling Good
Paul Ockenden gets to grips with MOTOROLA’s impressive push-email system, “GOOD”- a great competitor to both Microsoft’s and Blackberry’s systems.
Fujitsu Lifebook Q2010
A great ultraportable, but stiff competition just keeps it from the A-List.
GeForce 8600 cards
Offering bags of gaming power for an attractive price, the GeForce 8600 series is an enticing prospect.
Gigabyte Poseidon
A quirky, tool-free case with decent features.
Half-baked Blackberry
Paul Ockenden concludes his trial of mobile email systems. Guess which he likes best.
Halo 2
A Vista-only release that's merely a port of an Xbox game. The charm's in the gameplay, not its Vista-centric nature.
HP Color Laserjet CP4005n
A workgroup printing workhorse that delivers classy mono and colour print quality.
HP ProLiant DL585 G2
HP’s Opteron MP server delivers an innovative design teamed with high expansion potential and a good price.
Jeantech Aqua
Easy to build and maintain, but lacking overall quality.
Linksys SRW2008MP
A low-cost, managed Gigabit switch with full PoE support on all fixed ports, but the external power supply is huge.
Lite-On LH-2B1S
Cheaper, rather than cheap, but there’s still no compelling reason to buy yet.
MDaemon Pro Mail Server 9.5.6
Extensive features should ensure MDaemon’s place on the shortlist of any company looking for an internal mail solution.
NEC MultiSync LCD2690WUXi
Excellent quality, but the high price and sheer size make it impractical for all but a few niche applications.
NetObjects Fusion 10
A new interface delivers significant improvements, but the bundling of separate apps for related tasks raises concerns.
Norton 360
A three-PC licence as standard, superb silent interface and effective security utilities make Norton 360 a tempting buy.
Oblivion Shivering Isles
It's the first expansion pack to PC Authority's Game of the Year, and it's a worthy expansion.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ3
Battery life is the only downside to this excellent compact camera.
Portable software
With such a vast range of portable applications, which ones should you install? And are any worth paying for?
Power supplies
It’s important to choose a power supply that meets your needs. Here we show you what to look out for.
Preview: Microsoft Office Live Beta
An innovative and potentially very useful service for small businesses without an existing IT infrastructure.
Product brief July
Brief reviews of products including a 4GB SDHC card, a cheap DirectX 10 card and a wireless gaming mouse.
Questions & Answers
David Moss tackles misbehaving com ports and resolves a windows share issue.
SilverStone Temjin TJ09
Stunning build quality and design, but pricey and bigger than most desks can accommodate.
Steinberg Cubase 4
With a complete overhaul of the plug-ins this is the biggest update in years, but it’s too expensive.
Test Drive Unlimited
One of the slickest looking racers available on PC, but abandon all hope ye without a wheel.
The televised revolution
Leigh Dyer lets rip on digital TV, video conversion tools, aspect ratios and video formats.
USB Hubs
We’ve collected some of the cheapest, oddest and most feature-packed hubs to connect all your USB peripherals connected.
Vista multimedia
Jon Honeyball wonders why the Xbox 360 is better than Vista for the large screen, while contemplating Microsoft’s Live 2.
Vista: an inquest
Jon Honeyball rails against Vista and travels to learn about Microsoft SharePoint 2007.
Webroot Spy Sweeper 5.3 with AntiVirus
A good concept, but the on-demand anti-virus scanner lacks real-time email and IM protection.
Western Digital 250GB laptop hard drive
Western Digital has announced its range of 250GB SATA laptop hard drives, and we have the first unit in the country under the microscope.
Wide world of desktops
Leigh Dyer looks at the range of Linux desktops beyond GNOME and KDE.