Verdict: Great value for a cordless pad, and light to boot

Saitek's top-of-the-range P3000 is cordless and uses 900MHz RF technology. It doesn't have force feedback, but you'll happily sacrifice vibrations when you realise that the P3000 is lighter, smaller and cheaper than the Logitech Cordless Rumblepad.

Plus, it comes with two Ni-MH rechargeable batteries while Logitech only supplies non-rechargeable cells. This means you can pop one battery in the USB charger while using the other in the pad. The batteries last ages on a single charge too.

A small LCD display on the pad shows the battery power and whether the joysticks are in analog or digital mode. Two buttons let you quickly switch modes - the other eight buttons and POV hat remain unaffected. A red shift button allows every button to have two functions, but we reckon most people will find there are more than enough without faffing about in the middle of a game. Hardcore gamers will no doubt appreciate the profiling software, which allows you to assign keyboard or mouse macros to each button.

The P3000 was very responsive in our testing and was nice and comfy too. As far as cordless gamepads go, the P3000 is the best.

• Cases - 21st November 2008
• Motherboards - 24th October 2008
• Gaming Headsets - 26th September 2008
• Dream PCs - 24th September 2008
• Headphones - 12th September 2008
• Media PC components - 22nd August 2008
• PSUs - 14th July 2008

• Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB - Hard disks / storage
• Asus EAH4870 TOP - Graphics cards
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Pro - Sound cards
• Multiwinia - Games
• Zotac GeForce GTX 260² - Graphics cards
• Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 X2 - Graphics cards
• Scan 3XS X58 Core i7 - Desktop PCs