Absolutely blitzing the field for performance, no other notebook this month could get anywhere near the PowerNote 258SA from Digital Star, despite many trying. Pushing out an absolutely massive 4216 marks, this powerhouse left a 640 mark gap between it and its closest contender, the Toshiba Satellite A30. This power comes courtesy of a 3GHz desktop Pentium 4 processor, twice that of the majority of the units in our roundup. It also includes 512MB of PC3200, DDR400 SD-RAM for that slight edge over PC2700 333MHz modules. Dropping a couple of places back to third for the 3D portion of our testing, it was outperformed by the Labs Winning MSI MegaBook M510C and Protac's EXCEL G556. The MSI took top place boasting only a 64MB RADEON 9600, edging out the EXCEL's more powerful RADEON 9700 with its dedicated 128MB graphics memory by 59 marks, and a further 189 over the recommended Digital Star.

One of the advantages of running with a larger footprint notebook chassis, especially widescreen 15.4in models over square 4:3 TFT monitor laptops is the ability to use a standard layout keyboard, which is then easier to work on and elevates cramped wrists. For its size, this 3.4kg monster is actually quite well balanced, sitting comfortably on your lap without shifting weight making it feel as though it could fall at any moment. The 15.4in widescreen is its most noticeable feature and combines well with the included DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive and copy of PowerDVD to give you the DVD experience right in your lap or on your TV with the rear S-video output. Two front-mounted 3.5mm stereo sockets allow you to plug in headphones or a microphone; while a third SPDIF output lets you connect to existing speakers sets for surround sound.

Some thought has gone into the unit's layout, with two USB ports, modem, Ethernet, removable memory and PCMCIA located on the left hand side of the housing. Unfortunately however the infrared port is located on the rear of the unit, making synching with a PDA or mobile phone a bit of a fuss.

For users craving speed and lots of it, this notebook can do it all. Work, game, or watch a movie. Unfortunately the unit was unable to complete a successful run of MobileMark02; we're sceptical of it having much more than a few hours at most battery life given the high drain desktop processor and graphics. If you're one to sacrifice long periods away from mains power, for raw speed, this one is for you.