Desktops

Dell Studio XPS 435

Sporting Dell's strongest chassis design in years, our Studio XPS 435 review sample overcame our bias against jack-of-all-trades desktops. It's missing a few features, such as a second graphics card slot, but its decent performance means it's a good machine overall

Apple Mac Pro (eight-core, 2009 edition)

The updated eight-core Mac Pro looks similar to previous models on the outside, but makes a number of internal changes that improve its digital-media and multitasking performance. Design professionals will welcome this new tool in their arsenal, although gamers might be slightly disappointed

Alienware Area-51 X58

The Alienware Area-51 X58 has a name and a look that implies it's out of this world, and we would have to agree. With Intel's latest high-end processor and a pair of dual-chip ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 cards inside this desktop is a gamer's paradise. While the price may seem steep, compared to similarly specced models it's a bargain

Sony Vaio VGC-RM1N

The Sony Vaio VGC-RM1N, also known as the 'R Master', is definitely not for the cash-strapped -- it's a high-price, high-performance desktop that's designed to edit high-definition video. It boasts a quad-core Intel CPU, and unusually has not one but two chassis

Sony Vaio VGX-XL302

Sony's VGX-XL302 is a beast of a Media Center PC -- in more ways than one. It features dual tuners, so you can record one channel while watching another, and a pair of 250GB hard drives, but it'll gouge a huge hole in your wallet

Dell XPS 710 H2C

Despite buying Alienware, Dell continues to produce outstanding gaming rigs, such as the brand-new XPS 710 HTC. This beast introduces two elements we've never seen on a Dell -- factory overclocking and a space-age water-cooling system

User rating 8.0

Hi-Grade Xtc2_02

The Xtc2_02 is designed to be the heart of your multimedia world, storing photos, music, recording television and playing hi-def Blu-ray movies on your big-screen television. It's large and slightly noisy, but it has plenty of hard drive space

Alienware Area-51 7500

Alienware has left the rickety build quality of its garish cases behind and created a truly menacing PC with the Area-51 7500, a brutally quick gaming system with top-of-the-line components and performance to match. It's very loud, but if you're after off-the-shelf gaming power there's none better

Shuttle XPC P2 3700G

If you thought Shuttle small-form-factor PCs were dainty, then think again. The XPC P2 3700G provides enough grunt to embarrass most desktops twice its size. If you've ever fancied a miniature PC with Alienware-type performance, you're looking in the right place

Sony Vaio VGX-XL202

Sony's Vaio VGX-XL202 looks like it means serious business. Tech-heads should love the Intel E6400 Core 2 Duo processor and multimedia freaks will love the inclusion of a Freeview TV tuner card, but the flagship component in this PC is a Matshita BD-MLT UJ-215S Blu-ray disc drive, which allows you to play glorious hi-def Blu-ray movies

Packard Bell Smart TV S320

A hybrid of television and PC designed for those who want all the advantages of Windows Media Center or Intel Viiv without the hassle of having a separate PC and TV, the Smart TV 320 isn't the sexiest telly we've seen and has some annoying design flaws, but it performs well

Apple Mac Pro

Apple's new Mac Pro (£1,699 for the base model) is a winner on multiple levels. From the outside, it looks great -- far more put together than any Windows-based box. Inside, it boasts powerful specs, including two dual-core Intel Xeon processors, for a total of four processing cores. And to top it off, it's a great value

User rating 10.0

Sony Vaio VGC-RC204

The Sony Vaio VGC-RC204 is the first PC to come equipped with a Blu-ray disc drive. The long-awaited optical format allows dozens of gigabytes of data to be stored on a single disc. This makes the RC204 an attractive prospect for video editors or anyone who needs large backups, but sadly it won't play Blu-ray movies in full high definition

User rating 8.0

Shuttle XPC P 2500G

The small, sleek but hugely powerful Shuttle XPC P 2500G is perfect if you want a gaming PC without the boy-racer frills. Gaming performance is impressive considering the single graphics card, not far behind the Mesh X-treme FX60 PC with its dual-graphics card -- if you want a tiny box with the latest components in, it's hard to beat

Mesh X-treme FX60

The X-treme FX60 is Mesh's attempt to deliver the goods in both price and performance. It uses the fastest gaming CPU available and twin graphics cards, so we didn't expect it to be very cheap. As is often the case, however, Mesh has surprised us by selling the PC at a reasonable price point

Alienware Aurora 7500 (FX-60)

The Aurora 7500 is the perfect showcase for Alienware's ability to produce high-performance PCs. Its specification makes for impressive reading -- Alienware has equipped it with not one, but two of the latest graphics cards, 1 terabyte of physical storage and the fastest gaming processor available

User rating 5.5

Dell Dimension XPS 600

Playing Peter Jackson's King Kong on the XPS 600 is like strapping on a Kong suit and parachuting into the Amazon -- this is premium, rip-snorting performance. For your £3,000, you get a 3.2GHz processor, 1TB -- a terabyte -- of memory and 1GB of RAM

Alienware Aurora 7500 SLI

She's ported and relieved, and she's stroked and bored -- she'll do a hundred and forty with the top end floored. A 60s muscle car of a PC, the Alienware Aurora 7500 SLI will knock your bobby socks off. It's horribly expensive, but if you need a reliable, plug-and-play super-gaming platform, accept no substitute

User rating 10.0

Elonex Lumina

By integrating a monitor, the niggling screen configuration problems that plague most Media Center PCs have been done away with. There's no need to open control panels and hunt through screen resolutions -- everything works straight out of the box

Alienware Aurora Star Wars Edition

Alienware's Special Edition Star Wars Aurora makes you want to yell, "Prepare to make the jump to lightspeed!" and slap the side of the chassis. Strictly for Lucas completists, this PC comes in Dark and Light Side flavours and offers blistering Nvidia GeForce-powered graphical performance for an eye-watering price