With Dell's XPS 720 getting ready for showtime, it's quite possible that a few of you out there are eying a slightly different kind of animal, and for the Halo faithful, look no further than A-Power. The AP-Halo machine sports a fully customized Halo 2 chassis to go along with the game's PC counterpart, but it manages to look fairly good on the inside as well. Beneath the metal you'll find an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 processor, up to 640GB of SATA II hard drive space, Asus' P5K Deluxe motherboard, a Samsung dual-layer DVD burner, Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card, gigabit Ethernet, a 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX handling the DX10 duties, a 700-watt power supply, and to cap things off, it also comes bundled with Microsoft's own Reclusa keyboard and Habu mouse. Of course, it'll come pre-loaded with Vista Ultimate and Halo 2, and deep-pocketed gamers can add on an Xbox 360 PC controller if they choose. The Halo 2-themed system is slated to launch on May 22nd, and while the base price sits at CAD$1,659 ($1,505) sans a monitor, those hardware upgrades will send that figure quite a ways north.

Microsoft sure raised expectations pretty high with the months of build-up for its Razer-co-designed Habu gaming mouse, but now that its been freed of the hype-machine we're finally starting to get an idea of how it stacks up to the competition. While Extreme Tech didn't exactly get off on the right foot with the mouse, with their first one turning up D.O.A., they eventually got one that worked and put it through the usual paces, mostly liking what they found, giving the mouse a hefty 9 out of 10. They especially dug the mouse's comfortable design, responsive buttons, and massive 2,000 DPI resolution, although they found that to be a bit too much for them, instead preferring the mouse's 1,600 DPI setting for gaming and going all the way back to 800 DPI for non-gaming tasks. The biggest downside, not surprisingly, is the price, coming in at a not insignificant $70. More than the average mouse to be sure, but not all that out of line compared to some of the other top-end gaming mice on the market, although we have to admit that "Habu" doesn't exactly elicit the same sort of menace as the DeathAdder.

Along with that new Razer-powered Habu mouse, Microsoft is busting out two more gaming devices with the realization that sometimes noobs need to get their game on too. The first one is and oldie but a goodie: they're relaunching the well-loved IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0, first launched in 2002. "People were literally carrying around their IntelliMouse Explorer 3.0s in protective glass cases," says Microsoft's Bill Jukes. The mouse includes 9,000 frames-per-second tracking along with "Precision Booster" and "Gaming Toggle" buttons. Microsoft is also cutting the cord on their Xbox 360 controller for PCs, with a new wireless version that works with your compy or 360. The IntelliMouse should be out in October for $40, with the wireless 360 controller following in December for $60.

Well, after all the hype of yet-another-Microsoft-viral-marketing-campaign, their latest teaser site, NotForNoobs.com, turned out to be a hype builder for a gaming mouse, and not for the Zune or the Xbox 360. The big news is that they've teamed up with Razer for this one, and the result is the Habu, a high-precision, 2,000 dpi laser mouse with interchangeable side button panels, high speed motion detection, and the ability to adjust DPI on the fly. Oh, and it's wired, too, doesn't sound like they're doing a wireless version, at least not yet. Should retail for $69.95 when it hits stores in October.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]