Dell's 6-Core Infused Alienware Area-51 Gaming PC Monster Invades HH Labs

This weekend the weather has been acting up here in the Northeast. We've had some torrential rains causing localized flooding and the wind has been fierce, giving us the feeling that Mother Earth has decided to kick up her wrath a bit, forcing us all to seek shelter indoors. Or, perhaps, the change in atmosphere has nothing to do with dear ol' Mother Earth and more to do with what landed on the HotHardware.com loading dock last week. Perhaps the atmospheric disturbance we're dealing with is a result something extra-terrestrial that has invaded the test area now at HH. See, this little company by the name of Intel, they have a new chip. It has six processor cores in it and it's pretty fast actually. So, this guy Michael... last name begins with a "D"... oh, yeah, Dell, that's it.
Though the interior shot above is well lit by a few strategically positioned LEDs, we can tell you that the system was actually not plugged in to a power source when we held our little impromptu photo-shoot. In fact, the machine comes equipped with some sort of battery back-up that we're still looking into. So, when you open the side panel, even if the system is powered down and unplugged, you're still able to admire its build quality with a little mood lighting to warm you up like Barry White. Of course those dual Radeon HD 5970s (yes, that 4 GPUs folks) will keep the home fires toasty as well.

Intel's Core i7-980X Extreme Edition hits a slew of new gaming desktops

Intel's six-core, twelve-threaded Core i7-980X Extreme Edition has turned the hardcore gaming community on its head, and just about everyone is scrounging around in a (mostly futile) attempt to locate $999. For those in dire need of an entire system replacement, it seems that today's the day to start looking. Shortly after we heard that this 32nm Gulftown chip would be landing with Alienware and Origin PC rigs, a veritable plethora of other outfits have shown up to make similar announcements. Digital Storm has popped an overclocked (4.4GHz) version into its Black|OPS machine (which conveniently starts at $5,642, while CyberPower is now offering the silicon in its Black Mamba, Black Pearl and Gamer Xtreme 3D machines. Maingear's also sliding said CPU into its world-beating Shift "supercomputer," and anyone shopping a high-end Velocity Micro system will also see the option. We suspect most every other PC maker in existence will be following suit soon, so if your prefab PC builder hasn't yet jumped on the bandwagon, just hold tight. Real tight.