Life is sweet for pro gamer Jonothan 'Fatal1ty' Wendel. He has aglobetrotting job thrashing people at Painkiller, more endorsements than Jeremy Laird's driving license.

We've looked at Zalman's 'flower' coolers several times before, and rather admired the Intel version. This AMD incarnation, resplendent in understated black and chromed copper, hasn't changed our minds.

LEDs don't often suggest a good product. You'll usually find what's been spent on pretty flashing lights has been deducted from the rest of the budget

Getting a silent or even half-quiet PC still seems something of a struggle. In most cases it feels like you should be grateful for a non-beige, lightweight case; noise levels are almost an afterthought by the manufacturer, enter the Silentmaxx.

There's a lesson to be learned for those that want to use spraypainted grey mesh as part of a black case: all the nifty drive-covering flaps in the world won't save your case from looking like a disastrous early Eighties boombox.

Those Cooler Master cats may be satisfied living in a world of Borgpods and big orange glowing lozenges, but we're not so sure they're on the right aesthetic level with this case. it's rather freaky looking.

You have to respect to Lian Li for producing what is a totally no-nonsense case. It's utterly square, made of aluminium, small in stature, big on drive bays, has no fancy extras and comes installed with two fans.

Aluminium is a great material to build a case from. Not only is it incredibly light, but it also has good heat-dissipating properties. It also happens to be more expensive than steel, which is why cases made from it are less common.

We'd love to aspire to only coveting the finest and latest computer technology, yet when a case drops onto the test bench that does no wrong and comes in under £40, including a 350W power supply, it's something that's hard to ignore.

It's amazing to think that this midi-tower is made on the other side of the world, shipped thousands of miles and can still be flogged to us, the public, for less than £40.

Over the past few years Antec has moved on from a company making run-of-the-mill PC boxes to one that's setting the benchmark for new system cases. In many ways it's not doing anything revolutionary or innovative...

Who'd want a wheezing monstrosity in their living room? It's no wonder that most PCs never make it that far, but here's the case that could finally fit the digital home dream. Based on a Micro ATX board, this compact, stylish-looking case...

You may be thinking your laptop is feeling a little warm. So cool it down!

So, let's talk power consumption. At moments of peak draw, NVIDIA's7900GTX uses around 85 Watts of power. The gruntier ATI X1900XTX requires a rather heftier 120W, and the dual-VGA 7950GX2 needs awhopping 143W.

As you can see from the photo, this new chassis from Antec isn't some jazzy, bejewelled gamer's case, replete with flashing disco LEDs. However, as Antec tends to cater to the gaming fraternity, that may come as a surprise.