Awesome Computers

Lian Li’s DK-04 electronic standing desk doubles as a gaming PC chassis. It has tons of cooling, room for an mATX or ATX motherboard, GPUs up to 320mm long, and up to eight 3.5″ or 2.5″ drives. Its height can be adjusted from 27″ to 46″. Drops 5/10/16 for $1500.

HP tries to marry style and power with the new Spectre 13. It’s the world’s thinnest laptop at just 10mm thick and it weighs just 2.5lb. But it has a Core i5/i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, up to 512GB SSD, three USB-C ports and a 13.3″ 1080p display. Drops 4/25/16 for $1,170+.

The G900 Chaos Spectrum is a impressively fast wireless mouse that uses the PMW3366 sensor, the same one that’s in the beloved G502 and other high-end gaming mice. It also has four removable side buttons and a USB cable for wired use and recharging.

The Razer Core lets you connect a desktop GPU to a laptop via a Thunderbolt 3 cable. For now the Core is compatible only with Razer’s Blade Stealth ultrabook and the 2016 Blade gaming laptop, but Razer hopes that other PC makers will support the dock as well.

We’ve been on the hunt for a laptop that could keep up with the daily demands of creating The Awesomer. Thanks to its powerful 6th-gen Intel core i7 CPU, insanely sharp 15″ 4K display, and great build quality, the 2016 Dell XPS 15 is our officially our machine of choice.

The Fine Brothers‘ React series puts a group of teenagers in front of thoroughly outdated mid-90s computers to see if they can figure their way around these recent technological dinosaurs. Can you imagine how many floppies Fallout 4 would have needed to install?

The MateBook has the iPad’s looks and the Surface Pro’s brains. This Windows 10 convertible has a 12″ 2560×1440 touchscreen, a dual-core Intel Core M CPU, up to 8GB RAM, up to 512GB SSD and a USB-C port. It has an optional slim-profile keyboard, stylus and dock.

Jonathan Morrison put together a modern, minimalist and crazy expensive desk setup that fits the style of fellow tech reviewer MKBHD. Skip to 4:39. The highlight is definitely the angular Furtif desk. Check out the video’s description for links to the showcased products.

Lazy Game Reviews checks out some of the weirdest, ugliest and dumbest computers that came out in the ’90s. Like the stereotypical beige box PCs, these oddballs were expensive and bloated, and their gimmicks weren’t enough to make them successful.

Combining the control of a mouse with the functionality of an ergonomic keyboard, this unusual peripheral lets either lefties or righties control the pointer without having to take their hands off the keyboard. It’s up for pre-order now, but no delivery date has been announced.

The Alpha 34 is the pinnacle of all-in-one gaming PCs, rocking the latest Intel CPUs with 4 to 18 cores, NVIDIA 980Ti, Titan X or AMD Radeon R9 390X desktop graphics cards, 32GB of DDR4 RAM; and Samsung pro-grade SSDs. And, oh yeah, a 34″, 3840×1440 curved display.

The pocket-sized Kangaroo comes with Windows 10 64-bit Home and a tiny dock with HDMI, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports. It has a 2.25Ghz Intel Atom CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, a microSD slot, a fingerprint reader, Wi-Fi AC, Bluetooth 4.0 and 4h battery life.

LG is holding a contest where people submit a video of them creating a mockup of their dream desktop PC out of cardboard. Here’s YouTuber Mickey W’s awesome entry. Sadly, he didn’t make it to the finals, probably because he submitted it a day late. (Thanks Joe!)

Apple’s 21.5″ iMac now has a variant with a 4K display and better Intel CPUs (still no discrete GPU though). In addition, the 5K display is now standard in all 27″ iMacs. Finally, Apple’s wireless keyboard, mouse, and trackpad have built-in rechargeable batteries.

This Windows 10 desktop PC features an ultra wide 34-inch curved display with 3440 x 1440 resolution, and a six speaker Bang & Olufsen sound system. Packs a 6th-gen Intel Core CPU, up to 16GB RAM, available hybrid SSD, and NVIDIA GeForce 960A graphics. Drops 11/15.

The powerful XPS 15 finally gets the excellent XPS 13’s nearly borderless display. It also has a USB Type-C port, up to a 4K touchscreen, up to Core i7 CPU, up to 16GB RAM, up to 1TB HDD/SSD and optional NVIDIA GTX 960M GPU. Available soon for $999+.

The Acer Revo Build’s modules – a wireless charger, a speaker and a GPU with more on the way – can be stacked and hot-swapped on and off the base unit. Each module also has a standard connection for use with other PCs. Drops Q4 2015 for ~$200+.

Creative technologist, artist and hacker Martin Backes created this computerized installation which endlessly sings hit ballads from the ’90s, vocalizing the songs with a sort of robo-speak which expresses a tremendous sense of emotion.

The Intel Compute Stick is a full-fledged Windows 8.1 computer in an extremely compact form. It has an HDMI connector, 64-bit Intel Atom CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB SSD, a USB port, a microSD slot, and WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

ThinkGeek grabbed a low-hanging fruit for one of its April Fools’ jokes, conceptualizing a Steam Machine that actually runs on steam. All you need is coal and water. The steampunk controller looks sweet.

With up to a Core i7-4790K CPU and GeForce GTX 980 or Radeon R9 290X GPU, the DRIFT is a powerful STEAM Machine and gaming PC in a compact package. It can handle 4K visuals, and it looks stellar with the automotive paint upgrade.

Dell’s XPS line has reached its white swan moment. The new XPS 13 is a stunner, with thin bezels on its 1080p display and carbon fiber on its case. It lasts up to 15h per charge and has a 3200×1800 touchscreen upgrade option.

The Lenovo LaVie are incredibly lightweight yet durable 13″ laptops. The HZ550 weighs just 1.72lb., while the hybrid HZ750 weighs 2.04lb (the current 13″ MacBook Air weighs 2.96lb). Drops 5/15 for $1299/$1499.