With laptops being such a part of our daily lives, we still need a desktop for serious work sometimes. So Dell is on it and has announced its new Studio XPS 7100 line of desktop computers. They are powered by a bunch of processors from AMD, including the quad-core Phenom II X4 or hexa-core Phenom II X6 processor.

Pricing starts at $499, and you can already begin shopping for this desktop computer right now. Configuration options include: AMD hexa-core and quad-core processors, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Professional 64-bit or Ultimate 64-bit, 2GB RAM upgradable up to 16GB, Integrated ATI HD4200 graphics, or HD5450, 5770 or 5870 graphic cards, SATA HDD up to 1.5TB, Optional Blu-ray drive, Optional Wi-Fi b/g/n and Optional Bluetooth.

HP has its sights set on offering up some new computers to desktop PC business users. This line is called the HP Compaq dc7900 and you’ll find starting prices set around $600.

HP’s new Compaq dc7900 line will be available in ultra-slim desktop, small form factor or convertible minitower models. The company hasn’t yet unveiled a lot of technical details, but we do know these models will be Energy Star 4.0 qualified as well as running something new called the HP Firefox Virtual Browser. This is a real-time Web surfing environment which “corrals malicious content from a user’s Internet interactions and removes unwanted programs with a single click.” The dc7900 is apparently the first HP PC to have this offering.

Gaming desktop and laptop speciality developer GameRigs recently unveiled a line of gaming PC systems officially licensed from video game developer id Software. These new Enemy Territory QUAKE Wars and QUAKE 4 gaming desktops and laptops start at around $2,200 and $2,000, respectively.

GameRigs says these systems “have striking design elements, a robust architecture and many personalization options.” They also come with a gaming accessories kit and specific items, such as the game itself, which are tied to the specific machine’s namesake title. These machines, just by the looks of them from the product pages, look amazingly hot and include advanced components which match in quality the external designs.

GameRigs

iBuyPower, a self-described developer of gaming PCs, is branching off to develop computers specifically targeted towards videographers. Three computers are part of its new Video PC line – the Video Bot, Video Pro and Video Extreme – and they price around $1,300, $1,800 and $4,300, respectively.

Here are the specs of these new machines, as spelled out by iBuyPower: “The Video Bot, housed in an NZXT Appollo case, features the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 CPU, nVidia 9800GT GPU, and 4 GB of DDR-2 RAM. Customers looking for a little more power will find it in the Video Pro. iBuyPower packed an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 processor, ATI HD 4850 graphics card and 8 GB of DDR- 2 RAM into a Gigabyte Poseidon case.

Acer America is out today with news of a new small form desktop designed to serve as an entertainment PC. It is known as the Acer Aspire X1200 and you’ll find it with a starting price of around $450.

The Acer Aspire X1200 is available in three pre-configured options. The PCs in general feature AMD dual-core processors, NVIDIA GeForce 8200 on-board graphics and PCI Express 2.0. The X1200s measure 10.6- x 4- x 14.4-inches, making them easier to integrate into a home entertainment setup.

Hewlett Packard is bringing its extreme Blackbird 002 PC rig to retail this summer in an exclusive configuration. It will price around $3,300.

The Blackbird 002 will include nice touches like isolated thermal chambers, tool-free accessibility, and cable-free hard drive installation.  Key features will include an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9450, 4GB of Corsair Dominator RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

Asus has debuted what it is calling the world’s smallest PC equipped with a built-in independent graphics card. It is called the Asus Mini PC Nova Lite PX24 and there is no pricing or availability information as of yet.

The Asus Mini PC Nova Lite PX24 measures 242- x 184- x 51mm and weighs around 1.5kg. It runs Windows Vista and is capable of 1080p output via HDMI and its built-in ATI RV620 display card. Processing power is handled by an Intel Celeron 220 and this mini computer has 2GB of on-board RAM.

Apple made some updates to its line of popular iMacs today, including adding the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors. These new iMacs have starting prices of around $1,200.

The refreshed iMacs now include, according to Apple, faster Intel Core 2 Duo processors across the line, a 1066 MHz front-side bus and up to 4GB of 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM memory. The 24-inch iMac also offers a 3.06 GHz Intel processor and the high-performance NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics as options.

Alienware said today it is bringing back into its fold of desktop computers a popular model with revised features. The Alienware Aurora will price, depending upon configuration, at under $1,000.

The specialty computer maker said this desktop fully equipped has a quad core AMD Phenom 9850 Black Edition CPU and dual ATI Radeon 3870X2 GPUs with 2GB of combined, dedicated graphics memory. It also offers a fully-integrated AMD Spider/ASUS 790FX-based platform, up to 4TB of hard drive capacity and 4GB of DDR2 memory.

If the wife is screaming because your media center PC has cables running everywhere around your home theater room, you need a remedy to restore marital bliss. One possible solution might be the MediaCore and its furniture cabinet looks.

The MediaCore is a wooden enclosure which looks like a stylish European type cabinet. It is essentially a full fledged computer which is built into this thing, as you can see from the picture above. It has a forced air flow design to keep things cool and can host other A/V equipment like cable boxes to keep clutter down.

A boutique computer maker named HiPe announced today its next generation of gaming Windows PCs. These machines start at around $750.

HiPe said its latest gaming desktops support Quad SLI 2.0 and Crossfire X. It is also offering what it calls the “world’s first Octo-Core Dual processor gaming PC.” Here are specific details from the company’s press release:

• Razor D3 ESA Gaming PC
The Razor D3 ESA Gaming PC is powered by the nforce 790i chipset and Quad SLI 2.0 enabled dual Geforce 9800 GX2 graphics cards from NVIDIA, with up to 8GB of DDR3 memory running at an astonishing 1800MHz. Razor supports ESA (enthusiast system architecture) system monitoring from Nvidia for complete control over system voltage, fan speed, temperature and speed for the first time ever, resulting in increased performance, stability and acoustics levels.

Alienware is doing a major update to its Area-51 7500 flagship system and relaunching it as the Area-51 desktop. The starting price on this monster of a gaming PC is around $2,100.

The Alienware Area-51 PC new sports the NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI-based motherboard as well as an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 dual GPU single graphics card, according to Alienware. There is also support for DDR3 memory up to 2GHz, compatibility with 1600MHz FSB Intel CPUs and higher BIOS overclocking.

Alienware has been showing off today a new desktop PC which offers up quad graphics processors for advanced gaming needs. It is call the Alienware ALX CrossFireX.

This new Alienware PC gaming machine is certainly a nice looking computer, but its looks are easily matched by what is under the hood. This towner utilizes two ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards, each housing two GPUs and a full 1GB of dedicated graphics memory. It also supports DirectX 10.1 and runs Windows Vista.

Niche computer manufacturer CompAmerica is out today with word of what it is calling an extreme gamers PC. The new CompAmerica Super Eagle Extreme is priced at around $6,000 fully tricked out.

The CompAmerica Super Eagle Extreme sports “triple play SLI: 3 PCI Express 16x Video Adapters by nVidia (8800 GTS) with 512MB each, acting as a single video board, coupled to Intel’s newest Quad Core CPU, the QX9650.” Its maker has outfitted this gamers’ desktop with features like overclocking, water cooling and a SATA RAID controller optimized for 10K SATA-3 GB per second hard drives.