Price watch

This month's changes in the Pricewatch table divide neatly between the brand names sold by high street stores and the faster-moving direct sellers.

In the direct category, Intel's recent introduction of super-fast 350 and 400MHz Pentium II processors has driven prices downwards. Viglen and Dell have introduced machines based on the new chips, at similar prices to their previous top-of-the-range PII-333s. This has had a knock-on effect on the rest of their models, with prices falling and specifications rising.

Other manufacturers have been slower to tell us about PCs that use the new chips, but it is clear that they are already having an effect on prices.

The only PII-400 to be seen on the high street is from Time. As befits a manufacturer who also sells direct, it has wasted no time in introducing its Ultimate 400-2. With a generous 8.4Gb hard disk and 128Mb of RAM, it really is an Ultimate machine but will set you back #2,288.90.

The other high street manufacturers are all brand names, and these companies haven't responded to Intel's new chips quite so fast. Hewlett-Packard hasn't changed at all since last month, and Compaq has made two small price reductions.

Packard Bell has been slightly more adventurous, with a new Pulsar 24/H in the mid-range. It's a PII-233 with a fair spec, and a reasonable price for a branded machine. More dramatic is the price slash for the better specified Pulsar 26 - it's #400 cheaper than last month.

Direct sellers continue to offer more for your money. Dan's range has seen some price cuts, and Elonex has swapped its PTX 6266/1 for the cheaper PC 6233. With its Pentium II 233Mhz processor, 32Mb and 3.2Gb hard disk, it is good value at #999. The company's MTX-6333/1 has also been replaced by a cheaper model, and the new PTX-6333 has 64Mb of RAM, an improved sound card and a modem.

Changes have also been made by Evesham Micros and Mesh. The Prima P200, based on the IDT WinChip, is priced at #551.08, while the Platinum II SE has been replaced by the Platinum 'Wonder Media' 98. The Mesh range is little different from last month, but the Pegasus makes an appearance for the first time. Double Best Buy winner in What PC? group tests and winner of Best All-round PC in this year's Awards, it is a fine choice and good value.

We're always keen on new technology, and the cream of this month's new releases has to be the Dell Dimension XPS R350. It's got the latest PII-350 processor, and the rest of the specification is just as good.

In its newly restyled case it would be a fine choice - and is well-priced for such a powerful machine.

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