Office workers who work in certain industries need special computers to get their work done. A standard desktop that is used for checking email and writing word documents in a normal office just won’t cut it in a graphics design or CAD department. For this type of environment, a powerful workstation computer is needed.

HP has announced its new Z series workstations today that use the new Intel Xeon 5500 series processors. The new series includes the Z800, Z600, and Z400 workstations that are aimed at the CAD, engineering, medical imaging, finance and oil/gas industries.

HP just debuted its new Pavilion Elite m9600 series with Core i7 processors. HP gives you a decent amount of power for the price. The base configuration gets you a Core i7 920 2.66Ghz processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GS graphics and a DVD burner, all for $950.

You can kick that up to a Core i7 940 2.93GHz processor, 12GB of RAM, a couple of 1TB hard drives, 1GB ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics and a Blu-ray burner. HP also has four new 16:9 monitors, the 18.5-inch w1858, 20-inch 2009m, 21.5-inch 2159m and 23-inch w2338h. The latter two include HDMI inputs, and the prices range from $170 to $300.

MSI has been busy lately, releasing a bunch of notebooks and even an all-in-one. Now they are showing off the VX600.

This notebook sports a 15.4-inch (1280 x 800) display, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD3410 graphics, up to 4GB memory, up to 320GB storage, and both 6 and 9-cell battery options. The company has even incorporated their ECO Engine Power Management System, which lets you choose from five power saving modes, which should give you more battery life. (Gaming, Movie, Presentation, Office, and Turbo Battery).

Asus is all about thin with their U and UX series of ultra slim notebooks that will show up in the second quarter of the year. Both models will havea chiclet-style keyboard and auto-adjusting LED backlit display for optimal viewing.

The U series also features a 15.6″ glossy LCD display and a touchpad that uses progressively fading lights to follow your fingertips. Under the hood there’s an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a NVIDIA GeForce G105M graphics card, up to 500GB of hard drive space and Altec Lansing speakers with SRS true surround sound.

Dell’s 12.1-inch Latitude XT2 just got official and has also just been released in Korea. It’s been announced for the US with prices starting at $2,399. It features all the cool features you want in a multi-touch like the ability to pinch to zoom and two-finger swiping. (Which sounds a bit dirty somehow)

How does 11-hours of battery life sound? It also features DDR3 memory. Some other specs include: up to 1.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo ULV SU9400 processor with Montevina chipset, Intel integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics, Windows Vista Ultimate on down, 12.1-inch LED backlit capacitive touch-screen with EM Digitizer pen, up to 5GB of DDR3 1066MHz (1x1GB, 1x4GB DIMM), up to 120GB 5400RPM SATA disk or 128GB SSD, 802.11a/g/n WiFi and gigabit Ethernet, SATA ODD, 3.78-pounds (1.72-kg) with 6-cell battery, eSATA, 2x USB 2.0, firewire, and ExpressCard 54 slot. Check out a video below.

Eurocom has outted it’s super powerful notebook, the D900F Phantom, which is powered by Intel’s i7 processor. It’s a good desktop replacement model with some powerful features. Some specs include: Intel Core i7 processor, Intel X58 chipset, Up to 8GB DDR3 RAM, 1.5TB hard drive space, NVIDIA GeForce G280/9800GTX Quadro FX3700 Graphics (1GB DDR5 Memory), 2.0 megapixel webcam, Blu-ray drive, 17″ WUXGA 1920×1200 or WSXGA+ 1600×1050 widescreen display.

The OS is your choice of Windows Vista/XP or Linux, and pricing will vary, but don’t expect it to be cheap. This is a high end notebook.

Sony Japan just announced its VAIO G3 for the G Series, another ultra portable notebook aimed at business professionals. The body weighs just 898 grams and it has a surprisingly good battery life. The VAIO G3 boasts up to 13 hours according to Sony.

Some specs: Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300/SU9400 processor, 12.1″ XGA (1,024 × 768) widescreen LCD, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, Intel GMA 4500MHD graphics, 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth connectivity, and Windows Vista Business.

Antec unveiled yesterday its latest high-performance gaming case for PC gamers. It is called the Nine Hundred Two and it prices around $165.

The Antec Nine Hundred Two is designed to better offer cooling for overclocked computer parts. These cooling options include a perforated front bezel for better air intake, a top-mounted 200mm Big Boy 200 exhaust fan with blue LED illumination, three 120mm fans and a fan mount on the window side panel for graphics card cooling.

Dell’s new Studio XPS laptops have arrived on the company’s store without even a press release. The 1340 is obviously the Studio XPS 13 incher, while the 1640 is the 16-inch version of the leather accented system. Both machines are lookers, and share the same $1,199 pricepoint, with Core 2 Duo processors and the typical options.

The base model of the 1340 includes a P8400 processor, Vista Home Premium, a 13.3-inch WXGA LCD, 2 megapixel webcam, 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, 320GB 7200rpm SATA drive, slot-loading DVD burner and NVIDIA GeForce 9400M G graphics. The 1640 is similar, but with ATI Mobility RADEON M86XT graphics.

Add this one to the ever growing pantheon of Apple rumors. PCPerspective has reason to believe that Apple is preparing a 24″ iMac. They say that we will get a set of four new iMac computers announced this week. Two 20″ iMacs with an NVIDIA integrated-GPU chipset based on the MCP79 design (the same used in the most recent MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks) and one of those will include the mobility GeForce 9600-series discrete GPU as well. This integrated + discrete graphics solution is basically identical the setup the new 15″ MacBook Pro includes.

If you buy into the hype, the 24″ iMacs will have the same integrated chipset but both of these will include discrete graphics solutions. The lower-end 24″ model will use the same mobility 9600 series that the MacBook Pro uses and the higher-end model will use a slightly faster GeForce 9800M solution. That would make the new 24″ iMac a useful gaming machine.

We didn’t see this one coming. Although we had hoped for something like it, after seeing the Apple Tribook. The new IBM ThinkPad W700 may only have one integrated secondary display, but it’s a foldable, 10.6 inch secondary display, with 768 x 1,280 pixels and LED backlight.

This may not be an Apple Tribook, but hell that was just a fancy dream. This one is real and the IBM ThinkPad W700 feature list has us impressed.

Has anyone cross-referenced the prophecies of Nostradamus with Hello Kitty? Because I’m pretty sure she’s the Anti-Christ. Anyhow, the kitty is back thanks to Pure Digital Technologies’ Flip Video lineup getting all Hello Kitty-fied with the Mino and MinoHD. Like their un-kitti-fied cousins, the camcorders sport one-touch video recording, a built-in USB port, and can record 60 minutes of video with a rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

Most importantly for those willing to worship at the kitty altar, the camcorders come in eleven different Hello Kitty designs. Apparently, the price will be $179.99 for Mino and $229.99 for MinoHD, which is the same price as without the kitty graphics.

Fujitsu Siemens has been showing off its AMILO Sa 3650 and AMILO GraphicBooster add-on for a few months, but it looks like both are now actually rolling out to the general public. The laptop is a 13-inch, AMD-based laptop in your choice of Turion X2 or Athlon X2 processors.

Some other features are an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card, up to 4GB of RAM, with either a 250GB or 320GB hard drive. The GraphicBooster add-on currently only works with the Sa 3650 and is based around an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 graphics card. It promises a stunning 470% increase in graphics performance over the laptop’s built-in graphics. No word on price yet, but both the laptop and the GraphicBooster should be available later this month.

Rockstar has seen critical acclaim and great success from its Grand Theft Auto franchise. At the same time, gamers and critics have loved the game, it has had its share of heat in the form of controversy around the games violent and sexual content.

Despite the good and bad publicity, GTA IV proved to be a very popular game when it launched on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Shortly after launch, Rockstar announced that the Xbox 360 version would also get exclusive download content. Today Rockstar announced that GTA IV is now available on the PC.

HP has announced the TouchSmart tx2. The laptop will be able to distinguish between voluntary pinching with two fingers and any accidental input. You can also use the bundled stylus to enter data. The tx2’s 12.1-inch screen is fully multi-touched up, but not in the iPhone/iPod touch way. It uses capacitive touch, which enables more accurate input, also brushes and swipes and two-handed gestures. You can use two hands to crop photos for instance.

Some other features are: integrated digital TV tuner, dual core AMD Turion X2 processor and ATI Radeon 3200 graphics. The screen can be twisted and folded all the way around; converting the standard notebook into a tablet PC. With a digital pen you can make notes and your writing will be converted to editable text. The HP TouchSmart tx2 will be available in January 2009 for about $1,150.