Desktops

Call it fate, or call it the beginning of an unsightly trend, but whatever the case, we’re seeing the second all-in-one green PC this week in the Akhter LoCO2PC. Designed to look like an atypically thick LCD 19-inch monitor, this energy-sipping desktop hums along at 3GHz while sucking down just 55-watts (or less) while in use; when it falls to sleep, it consumes just 3-watts. The 19-inch panel boasts an SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) resolution, HDMI output, 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi and your choice of a Celeron dual-core or Core 2 Duo processor. Prices range from £539 ($975) to £639 ($1,156) depending on options, but considering just how much energy you’ll be saving (or so they say), the price is totally justified.

[Via PC World]

Call it fate, or call it the beginning of an unsightly trend, but whatever the case, we’re seeing the second all-in-one green PC this week in the Akhter LoCO2PC. Designed to look like an atypically thick LCD 19-inch monitor, this energy-sipping desktop hums along at 3GHz while sucking down just 55-watts (or less) while in use; when it falls to sleep, it consumes just 3-watts. The 19-inch panel boasts an SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) resolution, HDMI output, 250GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi and your choice of a Celeron dual-core or Core 2 Duo processor. Prices range from £539 ($975) to £639 ($1,156) depending on options, but considering just how much energy you’ll be saving (or so they say), the price is totally justified.

[Via PC World]

CTL, the same cats who brought us the 2go PC laptop, are apparently working up an equally cheap and not-exactly-flashy nettop PC. The 2go PC Nettop will reportedly range in price from $149 to $299 depending on specifications, and the baseline model will feature Intel’s DG945GCLF motherboard, Intel’s Atom 230 processor, 1GB of Kingston DDR2 RAM, a GMA 950 graphics accelerator, support for one HDD and one optical drive, six USB 2.0 ports and an Ethernet jack. The Essential Plus Edition ($199) adds in Ubuntu and an 80GB 7,200RPM hard drive (while slashing RAM to 512MB); the $299 Essential Performance Edition comes with Windows XP Home, a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. There’s no word just yet on when the 4.5-pound boxes will be released, but we’d expect ‘em to surface pretty quietly.

[Thanks, Nate]

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 Atom-based X27 mini-PC is definitely pretty intriguing if you’re looking to play around with getting a PC in the living room or even in your car, and it’s just gotten the modder-friendly price of $189. That’s almost impulse-purchase territory — we’re definitely looking forward to seeing what kind of trouble people get into with these when it hits next month.

Update: We just talked to Shuttle and they told us that $189 is just for a barebones rig — no chip, memory or hard drive. Fully spec’d with an Atom, you’re looking at $500 — which is ridiculous, since the MSI Wind barebones nettop runs $139 with an Atom chip. Oh well.

Intel is keeping a rightly low-key approach with this announcement, but if you’re somehow not satisfied with any of its current processor offerings, you may find something more to your liking among the three it slipped out over the Labor Day weekend. Those include the 45nm Core 2 Quad 8200, which clocks in at 2.33GHz with 4MB of L2 cache and a 1333MHz FSB, and gets a somewhat more budget-friendly $230 price tag at the expense of support for things like Intel’s Virtualization Technology and Trusted Execution Technology. If that’s a bit much, you can also now snag the dual-core, 2.5GHz E5200, which packs 2MB of L2 cache and 800MHz FSB for $84, or the single-core 65nm Celeron 450, which rolls in at a respectable 2.2GHz and includes 512K of L2 and an 800MHz FSB for a mere $53. Hit up the read link below for the complete breakdown.

Okay, so maybe those all-in-one PCs have their positives, but seriously, who really looks forward to paying good money for something that’s so impossible to upgrade? Tim Schellekens sure doesn’t, and rather than biting the bullet, he chose to snap up one of VIA’s EPIA motherboards, an old school 15-inch LCD and a bit of fiberglass. The four pages waiting for you in the read link detail the transformation, and while we personally wouldn’t have gone to such extremes (buying two monitors to get one?) just to craft our own web surfing desktop, we definitely admire the dedication. Behold, i-EPIA.

[Thanks, Ewan]

As we’ve seen, Microsoft’s job postings can often be one of the best places to get early word of potential new products, and it looks like the company’s recruiters have done it again, with a new ad offering a glimpse of what might be in store for the next version of Windows Home Server. Most interestingly, the posting includes the little tidbit that Microsoft is looking for someone to help it create a “Time Machine compete UI for backup and restore,” as well as a Windows Media Center integration UI, and a Live Mesh integration UI. According to Microsoft, that will help it position Home Server as “THE backup and Media Server within the home” by the time this next release rolls around which, considering that they’re still looking for people to help build it, likely won’t be anytime soon.

[Via istartedsomething, thanks Anand]

Tranquil PC just announced two new products based around Intel’s upcoming Atom 330 dual-core processor, which Tranquil has confusingly dubbed the Atom2 Z330. We’ll find out soon enough who’s right in their terminology, but cheap-ass speed freaks have more exciting distinctions to worry about. The new processor has dual Atom wafers, for pretty much twice the fun, and Tranquil says that desktop performance is “very very snappy.” They’re celebrating the new processor with the T7-HSG Home Server, which will start shipping on September 30th in very limited supply for £299 (about $528 US). There’s also a DVB-T Media Center in the works, but we’re otherwise short on details.

Looks like EA’s about to cash in on all that “can it run Crysis” chatter — Crysis Warhead will be accompanied by the launch of a $699 Ultra-built gaming tower that should manage a consistent 30fps. Crytek has been testing on the so-called “Warhead PC” since early on the dev process, tweaking the engine to make sure the game ran well on the 2.66GHz E7300 Core 2 Duo, 512MB GeForce 9800GT and 2GB of RAM– the rule was “if it sucks on this, the whole thing sucks” — and it apparently cranks out consistently solid framerates at high quality settings. No word on an exact release date, but for $699 it’s not a bad deal — and hey, it plays Crysis.

[Via CNET]

Read - Article on Warhead PC’s development
Read - Tiger Direct info page