Pricewatch

At the top end of the market, Intel's Pentium III reinforces its stranglehold on manufacturers' systems and their customers' wallets. Even the fastest 550MHz version of the chip makes an appearance, already powering Dell, Evesham, Time and Viglen PCs despite its launch only a couple of weeks ago.

Mid-table, the 466MHz Celeron has picked up ground. With only one appearance last month, it now turns up in machines from half a dozen manufacturers, with even Packard Bell managing to squeeze it in for less than a grand. If you're after the last ounce of performance, then this chip is well worth a look. Time's Home PC looks especially attractive, though Viglen's pairing of such a fast processor with an outdated ATI Charger graphics card is suspect to say the least.

Brickbats though are due to both Evesham and IBM. Following a price rise, Evesham's Prestige Celeron is no longer cheaper than every other machine in our table. And at the same price as Elonex's WebRider, we'd really expect to see a CD-ROM drive as well as the omitted sound card and modem.

The most expensive machine in the list comes from IBM. Granted, its Aptiva E736 is a fast machine and has an attractive 15in TFT screen. But over three grand? We don't think so.

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