Remember when the average Alienware was like four large? Ah, those were the days. As the used-to-be-boutique gaming PC company looks to attract a wider range of customers and fight off the effects of this economic quandary we're involved in, it has introduced the (relatively) affordable Area-51 750i. Predictably based on the NVIDIA nForce 750i SLI motherboard, this rig can be outfitted with a Core 2 Extreme QX9650, twin ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics cards (or dueling GeForce GTX 280s, if you prefer), 8GB of DDR2 RAM, Windows Vista 64-bit, more hard drive space than you'll ever have use for, an optional Blu-ray burner and the usual complement of ports. We needn't remind you that the $1,049 baseline rig doesn't have a specs list nearly that impressive, but if it's all about that glowing case, you can get in the game quite cheaply right now.

Alienware didn't do itself any favors by hyping up what wound up being a decidedly ho hum offering in the M17, but the open-minded critics over at CNET were able to sit the machine down for a tick and give it a workout. Reviewers tested a $1,999 configuration (it starts at $1,399) with twin ATI Radeon HD 3870 GPUs and a Core 2 Duo P8400, and overall, performance was "decent" for the price. Gaming scores were more than adequate and basic computing tasks were handled with ease, but a few niggles were still present. For instance, the smallish touch pad was blasted, and the inability to stay alive for over 1.5 hours during a video playback test was a real (albeit expected) downer. The biggest criticism, however, had nothing to do with performance; rather, critics lambasted the rig's old school design, and honestly, we find ourselves in complete agreement. Hit the read link for the full writeup.

Given that you've surely got rafts of free cash to burn through right now, we know you're eager beyond belief to drop north of four large on a new gaming notebook. To that end, we're utterly thrilled to announce that Toshiba's Qosmio X305-Q708 (starts at $4,199, goes to just under infinity) is available for purchase direct from the company. If that just seems downright insane to you, the three-GPU X305-Q706 is also available now for "just" $1,999.99. The big ticket inclusion here? An NVIDIA GeForce 9400M paired with two GeForce 9800 GTS GPUs. Or, enough to make Crysis weep.

When it said evolutionary, it wasn't kidding around. Alienware has just taken the wraps off of a relatively uninspiring (or, unworthy of hype, we should say) new laptop: the M17. Not to be confused with the M17x, this 17-incher is the outfit's very first CrossFire X-enabled notebook, and those with the requisite coin can get one outfitted with a Core 2 Quad / Extreme CPU, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM, twin ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 GPUs, a WXGA+ / WUXGA panel, an optional ATSC HDTV tuner, up to 640GB of HDD space in a RAID 0 array, a dual-layer DVD writer / optional Blu-ray reader, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, gigabit Ethernet and a facial recognition sensor. As with most of its siblings, this one puts a beating on the scales at 9.5-pounds, and we're certain you can deplete that 12-cell battery in no time flat. Granted, it does get going at "just" $1,399, but you can expect that figure to head far north when you add anything drool-worthy to the build sheet.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Look out, Alienware / Voodoo -- a formidable opponent just rolled in, and it appears that some prankster stuck a Toshiba logo on whatever machine is hiding underneath. All jesting aside, Tosh is revamping its -- shall we say, vivid -- Qosmio X305 by introducing the Qosmio X305-Q708, which houses a potent Core 2 Extreme QX9300 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 128GB SSD, 320GB 7,200 RPM SATA drive, dual-layer DVD writer, twin NVIDIA 512MB GeForce 9800M GTS graphics cards, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and Windows Vista Ultimate. You'll also find a full-sized keyboard with a ten-key number pad, four Harman Kardon speakers, HDMI / DisplayPort connectors, 1.3-megapixel webcam, Wireless USB / USB Sleep-and-Charge technologies and a 17-inch TruBrite LCD (though resolution remains a mystery). It should be available any moment for around $4,199.99, but we'd factor in a few extra hundies to have Colorware blot out the putrid "fiery Fusion" finish (seen better after the break).

Alright, something's fishy here. When Apple announced that the new MacBook Pro has two NVIDIA GeForce chips -- the 9400M and the 9600M GT -- the focus was on what that means for battery life. Absent any mention of Hybrid SLI, we assumed that was all, but PC Mag has posted some eyebrow-raising benchmarks comparing the new MacBook Pro to HP's Pavilion HDX16t, which also features a 9600M GT. While the MacBook Pro test model fell behind the Pavilion in most benchmarks due to its slower processor, its Crysis framerate beat that of the Pavilion by 24.1 frames per second -- 41.9 over 17.3. That doesn't make a lot of sense, unless you look at benchmarks of a desktop with NVIDIA's similar GeForce 9300 chipset and a GeForce 8500 GT -- turns out Crysis runs 12.63 frames per second faster (29.19 over 16.56) in Hybrid SLI than it does on the 8500 GT alone. Is the MacBook Pro running in SLI mode when set for performance? We don't have confirmation of that, but we'll put it to the test in our forthcoming review -- until then, feel free to grab a grain of salt while freaking out anyway.

Update: Sorry, folks -- NVIDIA's just posted a support doc that says the MBP doesn't support Hybrid SLI in either OS X or Windows -- and when running Windows, it's locked into using the 9600M GT. We're not sure where that Crysis boost is coming from -- GDDR3 vs GDDR2, perhaps -- but we'll dig deeper in our review. Stay tuned.

Read - PC Mag (MacBook Pro benchmarks)
Read - Hot Hardware (NVIDIA GeForce 9300 desktop motherboards benchmarks)

British computer maker Scan is mighty, mighty proud of its 3X Great White. Aside from blasting a Silverstone TJ07B case with an astonishingly corny logo, the outfit is also charging a staggering £11,171.18 ($20,225) for the soon-to-be-outdated rig. Granted, it does pack an impressive amount of cutting-edge hardware -- three 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 HDDs (alongside two 64GB OCZ SSDs), a 4.4GHz overclocked Core 2 Quad Q9650 CPU, 2GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM, three 1GB NVIDIA GTX 280 GPUs and enough LEDs to light up a small basement (among other things) -- but we still can't justify trading out a good portion of your kid's college education for a machine very capable of dominating Crysis. But if you can, the buy link is just a few clicks away. Just don't tell the wife, nor anyone that we told you not to tell the wife.

[Via WebCrunchDeals]

There was no shortage of case mods at NVIDIA's NVISION conference, but this one in particular managed to snag the majority of the spotlight. Created by Richard "DarthBeavis" Surroz, the Blade-themed DayWalker actually houses three separate computer systems; two are for playing games, while the other acts as a server. Conceptually, at least, the rig is designed to enable two users to play against one another, and given the "50+ fans" and triple SLI GTX 280 GPU setups (among other things), it's no shock to hear that it'd cost around $18,000 to $20,000 to build again. 'Course, that's chump change when you're stuffing away millions of dollars owed to the government -- just ask Snipes... oh, wait.

Shuttle's SN78SH7 was briefly caught struttin' its stuff at CES this year, but after months on end of waiting, the thing is just about ready to start shipping to eager consumers. Hailed as the first small-form-factor PC to support NVIDIA's Hybrid SLI technology, this block can be equipped with AMD's Phenom X4 processor, 4GB of RAM and Windows Vista (among other things). No word on a price, but it should be quite apparent come Friday.

What's that, Acer? Your vicious Predator not feel so dominant now? ASUS just dropped a bombshell with the official release of the ARES CG6150 that first surfaced at CeBIT, and for gamers who accept nothing less than cutting edge, this is your rig. From the top, we've got an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 (overclockable to 4.0GHz) processor, NVIDIA's nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 3-way SLI setup with GeForce GTX280s, up to 4TB of HDD space, a Blu-ray optical drive, twin gigabit Ethernet jacks, two power supplies and a custom liquid cooling arrangement. ASUS is being tight-lipped (as usual) with pricing / release information, but let's just assume you'll need a serious stack of Benjamins to even sniff this beast.

Although NVIDIA's pledged to simplify its lineup for consumers and ATI's been getting better, the current state of the graphics card market is still a pretty wild alphabet soup of model numbers and specs lists, so the crew over at The Tech Report decided to break things down using the only stat that matters: price. While the results aren't exactly shocking (surprise: more dollars equals more FPS), what's interesting is that multi-GPU rigs are really quite cost-effective, delivering performance on par with higher-end cards at significantly lower prices. For example, two Radeon HD 3850s run nearly as fast as a single Radeon HD 3870 X2, even though they cost a fair bit less, and two GeForce 9600 GTs can potentially outgun a GeForce 8800 Ultra. That's always been the promise of SLI and CrossFire, and it looks like it's paying off -- any system-builders out there care to share their experiences?

During the hurricane that was CES, ASUS managed to get in a word just long enough to make mention of a forthcoming G70 laptop. Now that the storm has passed, it's dishing out a full list of details to get gamers' mouths watering. The 17-inch behemoth features quite the vivid motif, and crammed within you'll find your choice of an Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Extreme processor, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, twin 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GTs, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM and room for dual hard drives, too. Furthermore, you can feast your retinas on a WUXGA / WXGA+ panel and tickle your fancy with an optional Blu-ray writer, 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, gigabit Ethernet and 8-cell battery. Sure, this beast weighs nearly 10.6 pounds and packs more LED lighting than an LCD Soundsystem concert, but hey, you've got to flaunt it if you've got it, right?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Alienware's AMD-powered Aurora ALX picked up CrossFireX support just as soon as it went live from ATI, but it has taken a few weeks for the technology to make its way over to the iconic Area-51. Said gaming rig is now available with ATI CrossFireX, meaning that you can take advantage of all four GPUs across a pair of Radeon HD 3870 X2s. Full release posted after the jump.

Check it: AMD's potent Phenom 9850 processor, which had a fairly impressive showing during its recent benchmarking test, has teamed up with a pair of ATI's Radeon HD 3870 X2s to bring the Aurora desktop back on the scene. Available now and starting at just $999, Alienware's (potentially) "value-priced" gaming rig can be equipped with one of four AMD CPUs, a liquid-cooling system, twin 512MB 3870 X2 GPUs, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a few terabytes of HDD space, a Blu-ray reader (or burner if you've got the cash), an optional (but totally necessary) Killer K1 gaming NIC, Ageia PhysX processor and your choice of colored enclosures. Of course, speccing this beauty into a rig worth gloating over will easily set you back four large or so, but hey, you only live once, right?