HP Firebird 802 gaming rig gets $500 price drop

Well, it’s only been available for a few short months but HP has already seen fit to give its flagship Firebird 802 gaming desktop a fairly sizable price drop — $500, to be specific. That includes a $150 cut to the $1,799 base price and a $350 instant rebate that brings the price down to a pretty darn reasonable $1,299, questionable keyboards aside. For those that haven’t been pricing gaming rigs lately, that’ll get you a Core 2 Quad 9400 processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800S graphics cards (with 512MB of DDR3 memory on each card). Of course, any price drop of this size also invariably bring of the question “why?” and, in the case, the reasons are still a bit hazy. While HP discontinuing the line outright seems to almost certainly be out of the question, a slight revision does seem at least possible, if not necessarily imminent — although, any way you shake it, $500 off is $500 off, so we’re not complaining.

[Thanks, Ali]

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HP Firebird 802 gaming rig gets $500 price drop originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 19 Apr 2009 10:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shuttle intros Atom 330, SUSE Linux-packin’ X270V nettop

Go ‘head, Shuttle — break on out of that shell! The company notorious for pumping out the same barebone rectangle with a different model name and a few extra ports has finally seen fit to do something a touch different, and what we’re dealt is the X270V. This so-called Mini-PC relies on Intel’s 1.6GHz Atom 330 to push the computations, while up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM keeps things in order. There’s also gigabit Ethernet, 6-channel audio, a PS/2 connector for the retro folks, six USB sockets and VGA / DVI outputs. Shuttle also claims this bugger is energy efficient, though it doesn’t go into great detail about just how much it’ll save you each month. Oh, and it also comes loaded with openSUSE 11 (a Linux flavor, for those unaware). Interested? Move to Europe and plop down at least €299 ($390).

[Via Slashgear]

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Shuttle intros Atom 330, SUSE Linux-packin’ X270V nettop originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Apr 2009 18:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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OBAMA PC sure to bring hope to your desktop, a tear or two to your eyes

Obama’s already inspired a cell phone and an MP4 player, but this is the first desktop we’ve seen tipping its hat to our Commander in Chief. What’s really awesome about this one, of course, is that its makers (Taiwanese company SEED) seemed to think that merely naming the PC “Obama” would result in capturing some of the magic… because other than the name, it’s just a plain-old, boring desktop. It packs a patriotic Atom N230 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and a 500GB SATA hard drive, plus it’s got four USB 2.0 port and an ethernet port around the back, just to name a few. The presidentially named PC is only available in Taiwan, for the oh so affordable price of NT$7,999 (about $242). We’re kind of hoping this is just the first in a long line of POTUS-named PCs for SEED, so may we suggest the next one be dubbed POLK or FILLMORE?

[Thanks, TheLostSwede]

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OBAMA PC sure to bring hope to your desktop, a tear or two to your eyes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Acer ships Veriton X270 business desktops to suits with egos

With a name like Veriton X270, it just has to be good, right? Um, not entirely. While the label may give off the impression that Acer‘s latest desktop is destined for gamers, the actual component list proves otherwise. Indeed, this rig was tailor made for suits in corner offices, though it does offer an impressive list of Excel-crunching hardware. We’re talking a Core 2 Duo CPU, NVIDIA’s GeForce 7100 graphics, up to 4GB of DDR2 memory, a 500GB SATA HDD, a DVD writer, gigabit Ethernet, Windows Vista Business and support for 5.1-channel audio. Said machine is available for ordering today in North America with a starting tag of $399.

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Acer ships Veriton X270 business desktops to suits with egos originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Mar 2009 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lenovo intros small, green ThinkCentre A58 and M58e desktops

Quite frankly, it’s immensely challenging to find desktops more apt to make computer users fall asleep at the keys than Lenovo’s ThinkCentre line, but thankfully, they’re not exactly aimed at the “1337 gaming crowd.” In an effort to continue shrinking the size of towers and blasting us all with the company’s profound green vibes, the ThinkCentre A58 and M58e have been introduced, bringing with ’em Intel Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Quad CPUs, onboard graphics, up to 1TB of HDD space, upwards of 4GB of RAM, optional Blu-ray drives for the really productive employees and all sorts of bloatware that keeps corporate machines from booting up a second before the coffee’s ready. For those of you still awake, you can buy either of these joyous boxes next month starting at $399.

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Lenovo intros small, green ThinkCentre A58 and M58e desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBuyPower trots out GeForce 3D Vision-equipped desktops

IBuyPower’s been on a pretty good roll of late with these new gaming desktops, and it’s keeping things interesting with its latest two. Rather than just shoving the latest processors from AMD and Intel into the Gamer Fire 640 and Gamer Paladin F830 and calling it a day, it has thrown in a 22-inch Samsung SyncMaster LCD and NVIDIA’s GeForce 3D Vision system with each rig. As for the Gamer Fire 640 specifically, it comes loaded with an AMD Phenom II X3 720 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 500GB hard drive, a GeForce 9800GTX+ (512MB), dual-layer DVD writer and Vista Home Premium 64-bit. The Paladin gets loaded with a Core i7 920, 6GB of memory, a Blu-ray drive and a GeForce GTX 260 GPU. Detailed specs (along with the full release) are just past the break, but if you’re scouting base prices, they sit at $1,349 and $1,999 in order of mention.

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IBuyPower trots out GeForce 3D Vision-equipped desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Mar 2009 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Haiku Review: Dell Studio XPS 435

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A game-changing look
to match blazing performance
in this behemoth.

Nicole Price Fasig

For the full-length, free-verse Dell Studio XPS 435 review check out PCMag.com.

Gateway intros four new gaming desktops

While Gateway‘s been on the laptop bandwagon of late, it’s good to see the company doing its thang on the desktop front, too. Kicking things off is the bargain-priced LX6810-01, which houses 8GB of RAM, NVIDIA graphics, a built-in TV tuner and a $799.99 price tag. The even more affordable DX4200-11 gets going at just $609.99 and features an AMD quad-core CPU, ATI Radeon graphics, 6GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive. Stepping things up quite significantly is the FX6800-09, which sports a Core i7 CPU and a $1,649.99 sticker. Rounding out the bunch is the $1,299.99 FX6800-11 and the currently unpriced entry-level FX6800-01e. If any of these caught your fancy, head on past the break for a look at the full release.

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Gateway intros four new gaming desktops originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Haiku Review: ASUS Eee Top 1602

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Touch screen all-in-one
sadly has all the hang-ups
we’ve seen in netbooks.

Nicole Price Fasig

For the full-length, free-verse ASUS Eee Top 1602 review check out PCMag.com.

IBuyPower dishes Dragon-based gaming desktops under $1,500

Yet again, IBuyPower is stepping out with a few new gaming rigs for the bargain-minded among us. The most recent duo to be outed by the company is the Gamer HAF 91B and the Gamer Fire, both of which are based on AMD’s latest Dragon platform and Phenom II CPU. The former gets going at just $999 and includes the Phenom II X4 920 processor, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 500GB SATA II hard drive, a dual-layer DVD writer, ATI’s 512MB Radeon HD 4850 graphics card, a CoolerMaster HAS 932 case and a 550-watt power supply. The more fiery sibling ups the ante with a Phenom II X4 940 CPU, a 750GB HDD, LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray drive and an NZXT Guardian 921 chassis. ‘Course, you’ll be paying $1,439 for that one, but either way you’ll be keeping things below the evidently magical $1.5k mark. Order away, should you be so inclined. Full release is after the jump.

Continue reading IBuyPower dishes Dragon-based gaming desktops under $1,500

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IBuyPower dishes Dragon-based gaming desktops under $1,500 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Feb 2009 20:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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