December has become the month of the hard drive hike, as storage capacities increase across the board. Dell is leading the direct pack with a gigantic 17Gb drive in its Dimension XPS R450, while on the high street Packard Bell is fitting both its high and low-end systems with bigger drives. Hewlett-Packard has also boosted storage space in its top-of-the-range Pavilion 6375 to 10Gb.

Dell is usually generous with its specifications even in the competitive direct market, and this month is no exception. In the mid-range, we see the company's Dimension XPS R450 powered by a 450MHz Pentium II chip, significantly faster than the 350MHz processor we saw last month. It's more expensive than December, but for your #1,579.20 you do now get a DVD drive and an impressively large 12.9Gb hard disk.

At the high end, you get a higher-specification Dimension XPS R450, for a slightly increased #1,849.45. Its hard disk is an enormous 17Gb, while screen real estate has also expanded to 19in. It also comes with a copy of MS Office and has a Zip drive fitted. Even at the low end Dell has fitted its XPS V333 333MHz Celeron-based PC with an 8.4Gb hard drive, but the monitor size has been cut to a diminutive 15in to help it pull the price below the #1,000 mark.

DVD-ROM drives are on the increase among the direct manufacturers, and both Elonex and Viglen are following Dell's lead. Elonex's high-end PII 450MHz Artisan has a DVD-ROM drive, but the monitor size has been cut from 19in to 17in this month despite a price rise to #1,899.

Viglen has chosen the DVD option for its HomePro Awesome Plus, which also sees a price hike to #1,996.33. Its HomePro Value is a bit kinder on the pocket as its price has fallen to #821.33 for a faster 333MHz Celeron processor, but you'll have to make do with a 32-speed CD-ROM in this budget option.

Hewlett-Packard has been shuffling its PC prices, and the low-end Pavilion 6345 has dropped to #899 despite an improved AMD 300MHz processor. However, both the 6355 and 6375 are dearer this month at #1,049 and #1,699 respectively.

Evesham Micros still has the cheapest PC here with the #468.83 Vale Prima, though it has no CD-ROM drive.

PICK OF THE MONTH

This month IBM storms into the Price watch table with a PC that's an ideal choice for those looking for a big brand system on a budget.

The Aptiva E18 costs just #749 and features a 300MHz AMD K6-2 processor, 48Mb of RAM, a 6Gb hard drive, 32-speed CD-ROM and a 15in monitor.