This quarter, we’ve decided to return to the Intel camp. The company has wrung more energy efficiency from their CPUs, and we’re impressed with the Core2Duo. The bottom-of-the-range E6300 is perfectly adequate for most users, at $248, but after our recent extravagance – the E6600 costs $449 – we’ll understand completely if you decide to splash out on a 6400 at $305.

We agonised over the motherboard. We probably should have gone for the Gigabyte GA945GZME-RH at $110, but the features of the Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 convinced us that at $169 it’s much better value for money. Our one gripe is the fact that it doesn’t have on-board FireWire.

Although we splashed out on a 512MB Leadtek 7950GT for our latest PC, we don’t recommend the expense - $425 – for the average PC. The best value card for gamers is probably Gigabyte’s 7600GT ($215). Our recommendation remains the distinctly low-end 256MB Gigabyte 7300GS ($85).  Anandasim, however, points out that it may block you from using the latest standard for widescreen monitors, so you might want to invest a little more. Our thinking is that we're in an unusual hiatus with video cards right now, and whatever you buy is likely to be a stop-gap measure. If you do invest in a widescreen monitor, you're also likely to be doing so with Vista. And at that point, you're likely also to be switching to a new DirectX 10-capable card. At the moment, the price of these things is too horrible to contemplate, but they'll get cheaper. If you're a gamer, you'll be compelled to spend A LOT more, and in that case, Tom's Hardware might give you a guide.

It’s just over a year since we finally switched from CRT monitors to LCD monitors, for the simple reason that we could no longer source CRT monitors at acceptable prices. That’s no longer the case, however, and if you’re not a slave to fashion, you might be interested in the Viewsonic E90+SB flat-screen CRT at $147.

If you don’t want to sacrifice desktop space to a bulky screen, however, last year’s choice - the 17-inch Samsung 740N, with an 8ms response time - has dropped from $335 to $258. We’ve settled again for the slightly cheaper 17-inch BenQ FP71G which has dropped $10 to $235. If you yearn for more real estate, the 19-inch BenQ FP91G at $285, looks like good value.

The price of RAM seems to be settling down again too. Last November there was a sudden spike with 1GB stick of DDR-400 Kingston RAM rising to $149. It dropped back, then rose sharply again, but roughly 12 months later it’s $148 for the more advanced DDR2 variety. You can buy 1GB of 667MHz generic RAM for $136, and our experience with our latest PC suggested it was no less reliable than branded RAM. If you plan to upgrade to Windows Vista, and you’ll be doing any serious multi-tasking, we’d recommend 2GB.

We’ve also allocated a little more for hard disk storage, opting for the 320GB Seagate 16MB cache SATA II at $149. It’s worth the $28 premium on last quarter’s 250MB Maxtor, and $4 less than we paid last November for a 200GB Seagate.

While the total price, at $1272, adds $70 to last quarter’s bill, you’re getting much more power and capacity. If you’re not amassing huge multimedia files, you could opt for a smaller hard drive, and buy the cheaper motherboard. We know what it’s like to have to make these sacrifices. Our Christmas cake will never cure in time.