Gaming rigs tend to target that absolute high end of the market where only the best components reside and custom paint jobs bump the system price up 25%, fortunately for you there are some sensible ways to go about things.

Digital Storm has cooked up an Intel Core i5 based gaming system that makes fine use of overclocking to bring astounding speeds all at a reasonable price. HotHardware has the review:

The relatively pedestrian quad-core has, in this case, been punched up to 3.8GHz from the factory. DS claims that the processors it ships in this configuration have been certified to operate “100% Stability and Reliability.” We’ll test that claim later in the review. It’s worth noting that the company doesn’t actually guarantee any single clockspeed if you opt to have the processor factory overclocked. For $45, the company will overclock the CPU to 3.3-3.9GHz, while $199 buys you entry in the 4GHz+ club.

A monster overclock all with a factory warranty, a bargain at any price!

If you’ve priced out a new ATX computer case you’ve likely run into more than a few models that offer up insane amounts of airflow but they come with an equally large price tag… fortunately at least one company is looking to save you some cash.

The NZXT M59 sports some rather extreme angles and more than enough fan mounting spots all at a very reasonable price tag. Benchmark Reviews has the details:

The interior of the NZXT M59 is where you really begin to realize how well NZXT has done with this low-cost design. The first thing you notice is that the entire interior of the case is painted black! Yep, no bare metal here. I’ve seen cases costing over $250 that don’t finish the interior; this is a real surprise in this level of case. All sharp metal edges are neatly rolled, and there are no “punch-out” panels for the 5.25″ bays or the rear card slot covers (I hate punch-out panels). At the bottom right are bays for 5 hard drives; just above those are two other 3.5″ bays (but they are not front-accessible), and at the top are the four 5.25″ bays.

An extremely nice case which may just make you question the higher priced alternatives.

Stepping up to a performance laptop usually means settling for a design that stands out like a sore thumb…of course there are those that enjoy that sort of thing but you’d rather blend in now wouldn’t you.

TrustedReviews has a look at the Toshiba Satellite U500-178 notebook computer and its sporty Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processor combine with discrete Nvidia graphics power:

What’s most likely to excite potential buyers is the range of features and options on the U500. There are several different models, ours being the top-of-the-range effort that runs to a cool £899.99. A lot of money, granted, but with a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 processor, 4GB of RAM, a generous 500GB hard drive and a 512MB nVidia GeForce G210M all on-board, you’re getting a lot for your money.

It’s quite pricey and its gaming prowess isn’t all that stunning but if you’re in the market for a solid notebook it’s a good choice.

The the ever shrinking computer got a little more stylish today with Dell’s launch of the Inspiron Zino HD in the US. While you might mistake it as some Intel Atom sporting nettop the machine actually sports much more robust AMD processor options.

The machine offers up configuration options of single or dual core chips, integrated ATI graphics or a dedicated GPU with 512MB of video memory for those Blu-ray playing builds, two eSATA ports, and a slew of colors to choose from.

Their pricing starts at $229 which is a bargain for a PC you can stick just about anywhere.

Source: Dell

As awesome as it is to get your media files, or any file, accessible all around your house most retail solutions will have you dropping quite a bit of cash for something with very little storage.

The VIA ARTiGO A2000 barebones kit will get you up and running quickly, you’ll just have to supply it with a bit of storage, memory, and an OS then off you go. TechwareLabs has the review:

One of the major and often overlooked problems in home servers is data security. Since home movies, pictures and multimedia are things that are generally accessed on a day to day basis, one tends to make the “accessing” process as easy and simple as possible thereby throwing any kind of security out of the window. Well consider this, the same drive that those pictures are stored at could also be the storing place for the credit card and other type of sensitive information that you wouldn’t want people accessing. StrongBox 4.0 by VIA is a securing program that takes advantage of the Via’s Pad Lock cryptographic engine to create a virtual drive secured by a 256 bit AES encryption. The Drive can be locked and unlocked by right clicking the virtual drive and selecting the appropriate option. This makes the drive secure while also giving the user the desired ease of use.

Secure and easy to use, a nice system for all of the file fiends out there.

Gaming requires a whole host of skill sets if you want to last even a few minutes against your opponent. You’ve got your hand-eye coordination, strategic mindset, and when you’ve exhausted all possible avenues to victory the good old kamikaze mission is in order. With so much to practice your skills on who has time to build their own PC?

PureOC has a look at the iBUYPOWER Paladin XLC V2 gaming system that pairs together some modest gaming hardware which results in a rather speedy system to plow through games with:

A closer look reveals the motherboard is a LGA1156 Gigabyte P55-UD5, a very nice choice, with solid BIOS features and enough slots and overclocking/tweaking options to keep an enthusiast pleased. The Gigabyte board houses a Core i7 870, the flagship Socket 1156 CPU offered by Intel. This chip is not cheap, and it is fast. In fact, iBUYPOWER has overclocked the i7 870 here to an impressive 3.8GHz from a stock 2.93GHz. The CPU is cooled by an Asetek LCLC 240mm radiator (slim profile) liquid cooling setup, an excellent choice, offering a much quieter setup than a high performance air cooler. Seeing a liquid cooling setup in a custom-painted case, particularly when you bring it to a LAN party, is pretty special. You’ll be sure to get all the attention with this combination.

Perhaps a single, more powerful, graphics card in the build would’ve sufficed but it’s a slick gaming computer for a low price.

As far as boutique gaming systems are concerned there’s no one more famous than Alienware and their pursuit of the high end. Of course they’re only a choice if you don’t have the time and patience to build your own gaming system, but you’re an enthusiast and want things built your way right?

HotHardware has a review of the Alienware Aurora ALX and its Radeon HD 5870 CrossFire graphics crunching setup. It’s mighty fast:

As we saw in our preview article, the Aurora ALX is powered by Intel’s Core i7 975 processor running at 3.33GHz and features a custom X58 microATX motherboard. The 975 is Intel’s fastest and most powerful desktop CPU in its entire line up, though it is also the most expensive. For cooling duties, Alienware installed a 120mm singe radiator liquid cooling solution on top of the processor. And installed on the board is 6GB of Corsair Dominator memory running at DDR3-1600MHz at 8-8-8-24 timings. There is a ton of fast storage available as we find two 1TB 7200 RPM hard drives in a RAID 0 configuration at the bottom of the case. Last but not least, the highlight of the system are the dual ATI Radeon HD 5870 graphics cards running in CrossFire.

It’s on the pricey side so you’re going to have to pay for that performance, on the other hand you won’t have to tweak it in order to get the speed.

While we’re all, mostly, keen on keeping our computing hardware nice and safe in your preferred aluminum, steel, or other clad PC case there are many situations where you need to test hardware before you deploy it to their final resting place.

Enter the Cooler Master Lab Test Bench which sets you up with a nice platform to try out your hardware. techPowerUp has a review:

The Cooler Master Lab is an interesting entry into the test bench market, which is lead by brands like Danger Den or DimasTech. Those are generally fairly expensive and may suffer from limited availability, while the Lab clocks in under 90 US Dollars and should be available everywhere Cooler Master products are sold.

If you’re in the market for a test bench or you just want an open air rig it looks like a good option.

Consumer level notebooks tend to lack a certain level of quality often times trying to reach magical price points they feel their consumers will jump at rather than focusing on the product itself. Thankfully competition forces different designs.

AnandTech has a look at the Dell Studio 14z which matches up a zippy set of Intel mobile chips with Nvidia’s 9400M graphics chip all in a tidy little package which won’t bog you down while on the go:

The big selling point is of course size; starting at 4.3 pounds and with a relatively small 14.0″ chassis, this is a laptop designed to be carried around rather than left on your desk. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is that Dell uses NVIDIA’s nForce 730i chipset, which means you can get a Core 2 Duo processor and integrated graphics that don’t suck.

A slick machine if you demand portability and good performance.

With Windows 7 just around the corner you’re bound to be hit with the deluge of new computing hardware hitting the market that makes use of many of the operating system’s features.

The Dell Studio One goes for the all-in-one approach and tosses in a touchscreen so you can smudge your screen and not get so worked up about it. It even packs an Intel Pentium E5200 processor paired along side Nvidia’s GeForce 9400M so you can expect decent performance…just not anything ground breaking.

A nifty machine that mixes decent hardware which makes it a nice office/productivity/stick in the kitchen PC.

Source: PC Perspective