One thing that most gaming PCs have in common is that they pack the highest performance parts they can get their hands on into a rig that sucks down power like a Hummer slurps fuel. With more people looking to go green, I guess it was inevitable that a green gaming rig was launched.

Maingear has announced the Pulse gaming PC, which it claims to be the world’s greenest gaming PC. The rig is based on the NVIDIA Ion platform and it is also the world’s first upgradable Ion PC. The small form factor machine can be upgraded from Ion graphics to an NVIDIA 9800 ECO video card that needs 40% less power than a typical 9800 GT requires.

When it comes to gaming desktop PCs they tend to be packed with the latest hardware and massive price tags. PC gamers looking for a high-end rig have some nice machines to choose from, assuming the economy has left them any extra scratch.

For those who have the money, Maingear has announced a new gaming PC called the ePhex X58 Elite. The machine draws part of its name from the Asus X58 mainboard that allows the use of multiple video cards from NVIDIA and ATI.

This is a first. Normally we see PC guts or console guts stuffed into all kinds of things, but they are the result of hackers. This PC-in-a-vase was designed by an actual company, ECS. It’s actually an interesting glimpse into the future, when we will want to hide the PC and have it mesh more with our environment.

It has an Atom 230 system, a 2.5-inch HDD of unknown capacity, a Blu-Ray drive, 1GB of RAM and HDMI out, all in one package. Sometimes you just want a vase in your living space instead of a HTPC.

Typically when you think about a server you think about massive, power gulping machines with lots of performance packed with multiple CPUs and lots of RAM. Some applications don’t need all that power though and would work just as well on lower performance servers optimized for power savings.

Supermicro has announced a pair of new servers to suit the low performance, low power needs in the datacenter. The servers are both based on the Intel Atom processor and the most efficient of the pair needs 4W of power while the higher performance server needs 8W.

It’s not hard to understand why netbooks are doing so well in the current global economy. People still want and need new computers, they simply don’t want or can’t spend what they would have on a new computer last year.

Netbooks are cheap, light, and portable leading many mobile users to jump on the netbook train. Strategy Analytics offers a few details about the netbook market in its latest report. According to the firm 2/3 of all netbooks sell for under $500 and more than half of all netbooks sold use Windows XP Home.

I was never a fan of the tiny UMPC machines that hit the market place at inflated prices before the massive netbook revolution. The thing I never liked about the little machines was that the keyboards tended to be sized for thumb use only and I just couldn’t see them being useful in the real world.

One of the cool looking UMPCs at CES 2009 was the OQO Model 2+. The little machine promised an Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, OLED touch screen and more. I was rather excited to see it at CES 2009 and while interesting, I didn’t think it stacked up at all against the mass of netbooks around.

With the poor global economy, it’s no surprise that computer sales are slipping around the globe. The only segment of the computer industry that is actually growing robustly is the netbook category as consumers look to lower cost devices.

Gartner Research announced its global PC shipment numbers for Q1 2009 today and HP sits at the top of the list. HP shipped 19.8% of the all PCs shipped globally. Total global PC shipments for the quarter were 67.2 million units.

Professional video editors take advantage of lots of tools that make editing video easier to do. The catch for amateur video editors is that most of that specialized gear costs lots of money. Things like jog wheels for rewinding and forwarding film and other items are out of the reach of many would be editors.

Bella Corporation has announced a new wireless HD Mouse that is designed for video editing tasks. The mouse includes software that allows users to program mouse movements to specific video functions. The X and Y axis can be programmed to work like a jog wheel moving video forwards and backwards.

I am here to tell you that there are few things worse than roasting your chestnuts trying to use your laptop actually in your lap. There are tons of laptop coolers on the market, many of them are bulky metal things that need power from your PC to operate.

If all you want is some comforting insulation between your nads and your laptop that doesn’t need power, the HeatShift by ThermaPAK may be perfect for you. ThermaPAK has announced new colors and sizes for the HeatShift passive laptop cooler. The cooler is now available in 13-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch sizes and black, white, or pink colors.

I was never a fan of comic books in my youth, but I did like the Spiderman TV series that used to come on and Hulk when I was a kid. I also enjoy the movies from Marvel that have been coming with increased frequency. That said, I am not such a big fan that I would buy the toys or other items with superheroes on them.

If you are a big fan of Spiderman and want something else to go along with your posters and Underoos with the web-slinging hero on them, Dream Cheeky has a new Spiderman USB webcam that looks like a retro film camera.

Back when I first started writing full time, I spent a long, cold winter working in an uninsulated garage. There was no way to keep the garage warm, no matter what I tried and I found that my fingers would cramp up and get stiff making typing harder. Working with gloves was far from ideal and I would have loved to have a mouse that heated up at the time.

I think that early spring may be the wrong time to introduce new heat therapy peripherals, but that is happening anyway. ValueRays has a selection of infrared heat therapy computer workstation peripherals for people with arthritis who need pain relief.

The economy is bad and computer sales are at the lowest point seen in years. Many of the top computer makers in the world are laying off employees to maintain profitability and viability. Despite the poor performance of the computer industry as a whole, the netbook segment of the market is booming.

DisplaySearch reports that netbooks are expected to grow 65% year over year in 2009 for a total of 27 million units expected to ship. The traditional notebook market as a whole is expected to grow only 3% year over year.

When I was a kid, my doctor’s nurse would always bust out of the door to the exam room with an arm full of paper folders with all my medical records inside. More often than not she gave the doctor the wrong folder resulting in more agonizing wait time before I found out if I had to get a shot or not.

Today when I take my son to the doctor the nurse comes out with a small tablet computer in hand with access to all the medical records in the office. A new rugged tablet computer for health pros has been launched by GammaTech called the Durabook RT10. The machine is fully rugged and can withstand drops of up to four feet and features Intel Health technology.

There are several different form factors available in the notebook/laptop world. Most of the computers we see are traditional style notebooks with a keyboard and an LCD. However, some models offer swiveling screens and the capability to be used like a tablet with pen-based or finger input.

There are also pure tablet machines that offer no keyboard. Motion Computing has announced its latest pure tablet computer called the J3400. The machine has an interesting dual battery slot design allowing batteries to be hot swapped for continuous runtime.

The rugged laptop is a strange beast that forsakes some of the portability of a normal laptop to allow the rugged system to be used in environments where a standard laptop would not be able to operate. Dell recently introduced a new rugged laptop called the E6400 and last year unveiled the rugged D630 that met many military specifications.

Today GD Itronix has announced its own rugged laptop called the GD8000. The machine can be had in a 13.3-inch version that meets military specifications and offers capacitive touch technology in the screen. The manufacturer claims that the machine can withstand 30 gallons of water blown at 40 mph without failing and well as vibrations caused by a helicopter.