Acer recently announced its series of X1200 small form factor desktops. There are three models ranging in price from $450 to $700. The X1200-U1520A and the X1200-U1510A are both available now for $450 and $460, respectively, and the decked-out X1200-B1581A will be available for $700 on Sunday, July 13th.

Each model comes with a 64-bit dual-core AMD chip, 4GB of RAM, on-board NVIDIA GeForce 8200 graphics, DVD burner, Vista Premium 64, 7.1-channel audio, and HDMI out. The premium model comes with a 22-inch LCD monitor and 500GB SATA hard drive versus 320GB hard drives (and no monitor) on the less expensive ones.

That’s a pretty compelling setup for the price, especially if you’re looking for a HTPC for the living room. Full press release after the jump…

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Remember Averatec? T’was once Sotec and appears to now be TriGem Computer peddling PCs and notebooks under the Averatec brand name? Whatever the case may be, there’s a new all-in-one on the market for $1,199 for those of you still interested in skinny-but-sorta-powerful computers.

The Averatec All-in-One PC (as it’s called) consists of a 22-inch screen at 1680×1050 resolution, 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, Vista Home Premium, nVidia GeForce 8400 graphics, 320GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, DVD burner, 802.11 b/g wireless, built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam, wireless keyboard and mouse, remote control for Vista Media Center, and an optional built-in ATSC TV tuner. At $1199, it’s priced below offerings from Dell and Gateway but has a larger screen and comparable specs.

Averatec All-in-One PC [Trigem.com]

‘Round April-time, some photos of a small form factor Dell PC started making their way through the series of tubes symbolizing the world wide web. This PC was adorned by a case made of fine bamboo and there was talk of some sort of “Eco PC” but the news came and went like so many lovers through a fertility clinic.

Today, however, it seems that the tiny Dell PC has resurfaced, except instead of bamboo, the case appears to be made out of discarded BluBlocker lenses. It’s what’s on the inside that counts, though, right? Well, there will apparently be some sort of Intel CPU, 4GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, DVD burner, HDMI, and DVI. So it looks like Dell’s gunning for your living room and that this might just be some sort of Media Center PC. The price should be decent, too, at potentially less than $700 with the “Studio Hybrid” PC (as its being called) becoming available sometime later this year.

via Engadget

HP’s new TouchSmart 2 is an all-in-one with a full touchscreen that is completely portable and includes a DVD burner and optional TV tuner. It’s essentially a kitchen or den media PC with a bit of a twist – the touchscreen.

Prices for the base model HP TouchSmart IQ504 PC and the TV-tuner equipped IQ506 PC are expected to start at $1,299 and $1499, respectively.

Both models should be available next month and you can read the entire press release after the jump. Sorry, multi-touch fans: it’s not in here yet.
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The ASUS Essentio CS5110, which we’ve covered in fair-to-middling detail, will be offered with an optional Blu-ray burner. Pricing will run between $657 and $1,642, with the Blu-ray equipped version of the PC starting at just over $1,300.

These prices, by the way, are being converted from New Taiwan dollars, so they’re not necessarily set in stone. Still no official launch date and we’re not even sure if we’ll see these things stateside yet, but more details are expected next week at Computex.

Full specs in a previous post here.

via IDG/Yahoo! News

Sure, they’re not as useful as some purpose-made cases, but these case mods are pretty cool. If your favorite gaming console bites the dust, you too could turn it into a PC with a little wire, glue, solder, duct tape and nerves of steel.

My fave by far is the Game Boy hack, because using the screen for the fan input is just awesome. When someone figures out how to casemod my Blackout Tranformers figure, I’m stoked.

Yesterday was “Hey, look at the new Acer gaming PCs” day. Today is “Hey, we’ve got some early pricing and specs for you” day. TrustedReviews.com has some interesting information in that the Predator line of PCs won’t be customizable — the machines will just be sold off-the-shelf in stores. That’s good for people who don’t want to wait, but bad for people who like to tweak stuff like, oh, I don’t know, gamers?

Anyway, on to the specs and prices.

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Here’s the Acer Aspire Predator that’s presumably coming out sometime soon, although an exact date and price aren’t known yet. The case looks like a futuristic dumpster mixed with a legless AT-ST, and I mean that in a good way. The front of the case is like a goalie’s hockey mask that flips up over the top of the machine (also in a good way). Specs include…

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For the first time ever, Cuban citizens can purchase personal computers. There’s only one model available and it’s priced too high for most Cubans (and it’d seem like a downright rip-off to most Americans), but this is a good start nonetheless.

The computer is a QTECH PC and costs just under $800. It’s got a Celeron processor, 80GB hard drive, 512MB of RAM, Windows XP, CRT monitor, and a DVD drive. By comparison, according to the Associated Press, “For about $80 less, buyers in the U.S. can get a desktop with more than twice the memory, an 80GB SATA hard drive and 22-inch LCD flat screen monitor.

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eMachines has announced two new desktop PCs today; the T3646 at $299 and the T5254, priced at $399 (shown above). Let’s take a look and see what each of these newcomers have to offer at such low price points.

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If you really sit down and think about it, do you NEED rent money, a car, and food? Would you even miss those things if you had the new Alienware Area-51 ALX CFX (starting at $5,149)?

If you’ve got that much money to burn, you’ll get an Intel Core 2 Extreme processor that’s been overclocked to 4.0GHz and liquid cooled, 2GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory running at 1333MHz, a standard dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 Crossfire setup, 20x dual-layer DVD burner, 8-channel audio, two gigabit Ethernet ports.

Most everything can be upgraded, too. You can opt for a dual ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 setup in CrossFireX Mode, 4GB of RAM, up to 4-terabytes of storage (160GB drive standard), Blu-ray drive (read-only or read/write), and a bunch of other stuff.

Area-51 ALX CFX [Alienware.com]

I think my Hot Pockets are ready

Most of us here are MacTards but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the many cool cases I’ll never be able to use with my beloved OS X. These cases run the gamut ultra-small to bigger than Peter Ha. Our special favorites show up near the end of the slide show and include the Top Gun and the monstrous, dial-covered I-Curve9 from Aerocool.

Straddling the line between PC and work of art, the Nova P22 is a Core 2 Duo desktop with 802.11n and Bluetooth. It comes in black or orange/white and is two inches thick. It has a 1.86GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and 160GB of hard drive space. It’s available now for $938. I’d hit it.

Product Page

They have WiFi, so why not bring your old Packard Bell in?

ImprovEverywhere via via BB

Asus is putting all its proverbial eees in one basket with its new line of desktop PCs. or example, we have the E-DT, a $199 desktop running linux sans monitor. They’ve also got the T-Monitor, a 19-inch LCD tv with built-in Linux and TV tuner for about $499. Finally, they’ve got the E-TV, a 42-inch LCD TV.

It’s good to see Asus taking the Linux lead here. Everex is also doing similar work but I think the eee has really hit a chord with consumers looking for thin and lights without the $3K price tag.

Asustek announces Eee family product lines [Digitimes]

Razer distinguishes itself from every other PC peripheral maker by focusing on making higher-end products…like this one! It’s the Destructor, a “gaming-grade” mouse surface. (I don’t play twitchy PC games, so I’ve no idea what the difference is between “gaming-grade” and the everyday kind.) Razer claims that the technical wizardry—optical and laster mouse optimization, “ultra wide” size—of the Destructor allows for up to 25 percent more accurate mouse tracking. It even comes with a protective case—that’s how serious this is. Or is supposed to be; I haven’t used it to say one way or another.

Wanna see my *crazy* mousing surface? Of course you do.

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These FX-edition laptops and PCs from Gateway come in black and brown. The gaming laptop, for example, features high-end Intel processors and NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS 512MB GDDR3. It has HDMI out. The laptop is priced at about $3,000 and will be available next month.

The flagship model, the Gateway P-171XL FX Edition, comes with an Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 processor, NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTS 512MB GDDR3, 17-inch WUXGA display (1920×1200), 3072MB of DDR2 SDRAM, 400GB(1) of storage (two 200GB 7200RPM SATA hard drives) and an HD-DVD player (DVD-RW). It is priced at $2,999.99.

The Gateway P-171S FX Edition will be available with an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTS 512MB GDDR3, 17-inch WXGA+ display, 3072MB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 250GB(1) 5400RPM SATA hard drive and a slot-load multi-format dual layer DVD-R/RW/DVD-RAM drive with LabelFlash™ technology(2) which lets users laser-burn scratch-resistant personalized images directly on CDs and DVDs. It is priced at $1,599.99.

The Gateway P-171X FX Edition comes with the new Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor, NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8800M GTS 512MB GDDR3, 17-inch WUXGA display, 3072MB of DDR2 SDRAM, a 200GB(1) 7200RPM SATA hard drive and a slot-load multi-format dual layer DVD-R/RW/DVD-RAM drive with LabelFlash technology(2). It is priced at $1,999.99.

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The TX 2000

Whoa, there, Mr. Packard! HP has just launched two new laptops, the HP Pavilion tx2000 mdash; a $1,299 convertable tablet — and the Pavilion HDX series of notebooks the Blu Ray playback and 20-inch ultrabright display (about $1,999).

The tx2000 is aimed at students and artists who need handwriting recognition and a nice touchscreen while the HDX is a monster gamer/meda player:

For an unrivaled home theater experience in a portable and affordable solution, the HP Pavilion HDX series Entertainment Notebook PC offers 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS video graphics and the latest Intel® CoreT 2 Extreme(2) and Intel® CoreT 2 Duo processor technology,(3) giving it desktop-caliber performance. Now with Blu-ray and HD DVD support,(4) the HDX series plays high-definition DVD or Blu-ray movies on the world’s first 20.1-inch diagonal WUXGA XHD Ultra Brightview display. HDX Integrated Audio provides a best-in-class audio experience with four discrete Altec Lansing speakers and the integrated HP Triple Bass Reflex Subwoofer.

HP QuickPlay software makes it easy for consumers to use their HDX series PC to view photos, as a television to access live or recorded TV, or as a karaoke machine to entertain friends and family. People can also watch, pause, rewind and record live TV with the integrated HP Digital + Analog Hybrid TV Tuner.(5) Other features in the HDX series PC include a mobile full-function remote control, dual hard disk drives for more storage and an eSata port for high-speed data transfer.

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Let’s face it. Much of TiVo’s charisma is due to its excellent software interface. The boxes are nice, yes, but the real power is in the UI.

Well TiVo and Nero have just struck a deal wherein "Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer." Hot damn. No word on timeframe or how much it’ll cost but this is good news nonetheless.

TiVo and Nero Partner to Deliver the TV Experience to the Personal Computer [Press Release] via Digital Trends

Lenevo today introduced new ThinkStation brand workstations into the PC market. The two new models include the S10 and higher-end D10 workstations. The S10 will offer Intel Core 2/Core 2 Extreme processors, graphic solutions from NVIDIA, dual Gigabit Ethernet, and multiple slots, bays and USB ports. The D10 will feature all of the above except with the quad-core Intel Xeon processor. Make sure you don’t keep anything flammable next to that thing. And before you ask, no word on new laptops.

Lenovo News