Rumour: Apple and Intel working together on smart  "iWatch"!!!!

Anyone for an Apple smartwatch? One Chinese site reckons Apple has teamed up with Intel to conceive a wrist accessory with Siri and iOS, which could control an iPhone

The 2013 Apple rumour mill is likely to be focused on the possibility of aflatscreen iTV set, but here's one for you to chew on over the New Year festivities: Reports in China suggest that Apple has teamed up with Intel to build an iWatch.

Chinese site TGBUS claimed to have received word from supply chain sources that Apple is working on a smartwatch that would bring iOS and Siri to the wrist and connect with an iPhone or iPad via low-power Bluetooth 4.0 tech.

The iWatch, according to the site, will be powered by Intel chips as part of the processing giant's move into mobile.

The smartwatch could have a 1.5-inch touchscreen, much like the previous generation iPod nano, and would allow users to control the iPhone through touch or Siri voice commands, while allowing users to keep the device safely in their pockets.

The demand for a wrist accessory to control smartphones was recently evidenced by the phenomenally successful Pebble Smartwatch project (pictured), which raised $10m (£6.2m) from over 70,000 backers on the popular crowd-sourcing site Kickstarter.

Naturally, the report can be taken with a pinch of salt at the moment, but the possibilities are intriguing. Would you be interested in an iOS-powered Apple smartwatch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Bye Bye PlayStation 2

Sony stops shipping PlayStation 2 in Japan after 150m sales 

150m and out. Sony has decided it'll no longer ship the legendary PS2 console to retailers int he land of the rising sun. Is this a sign than the PS4 is imminent?

Sony has decided to stop shipping the phenomenally successful PS2 console to retailers in Japan, marking the end of a gaming era.

The console, first launched in 2000, has sold over 150m units worldwide and continued selling well long after its successor the mighty PS3 arrived in 2006.

Despite six years playing second fiddle to the Blu-ray toting, HD-rocking PlayStation 3, developers had continued to produce versions of games for the PS2 due to its enduring popularity and user-base.

It even comfortably outsold the PS3 for much of the next-gen console's early life.

Sony has not revealed when it will stop shipping to other countries around the world, but with the heavily-rumoured PlayStation 4 rumoured to be making an appearance sometime in 2013, you can't imagine it'll be too long before the plug is pulled.

One thing's for sure; the PS2, not only deserves its spot in the console Hall of Fame, it deserves its own wing. 

iPhone 6: Release date, rumours, features and news :

Here you'll find all the latest news on the iPhone 6 release date, the rumours, upcoming features and of course specs on the eagerly anticipated iPhone 6 update

 

 

With the iPhone 5 release date still fresh in our minds it is no surprise that the rumour mill is already looking ahead at the next iPhone from Apple whether it's a refresh in the form of the iPhone 5S or the even bigger update in the form of the iPhone 6.

Apple iPhone 6 screen

With the Retina display likely to appear onthe iPhone 5S it would appear as though Apple may shift to a larger iPhone screen for the 6 with reports suggesting the company will finally try and compete with the screen of smartphones like the upcomingHTC J Butterfly.

Reports are flying around that Apple could be looking to implement a 4.8-inch Retina+ IGZO screen made by Sharp which will make the iPhone display thinner, brighter and much clearer boasting better than HD resolutions.

According to those inside the manufacturing industry Sharp is working on making its super HD display iPhone-ready however because the technology is so advanced it’s unlikely to appear on the iPhone 5S with Apple saving the bleeding-edge tech for the likes of the iPhone 6 and possibly even the iPad Mini 2.

Source: MacRumours

Apple iPhone 6 features

With the iPhone 5 featuring the super-fast and super-efficient A6 processor it’s believed that the iPhone 6 will come with the new A7 chip which would be limited to the next-generation iPad and the 6.

The source that suggested this also believes Apple will be looking to launch the iPhone 5S quicker than usual in order to give them enough of a window for the iPhone 6 to be a significant update on the previous model.

A new feature that could well appear on the 6th generation iPhone is the use of sonar as a replacement to the current infared sensors which use sound as a proximity sensor letting the phone detect where it is, either as a way of alerting the user about an incoming object, or as a way of detecting whether the phone is being held to the users ear.

Apple iPhone 6 release date

The Apple iPhone 6 release date could well be one key reason why there may not be an iPhone 5S at all. Tech website Technorati believes that Apple will be looking to regain the wow factor and to do that it needs to restrict its launches to game changing products.

While they could well launch the iPhone 5S as the ‘budget iPhone’ the iPhone 6 will be the next major version of Apple’s smartphone and the website believes that Cupertino could be looking to release it late 2013 possibly even 2014 in order to compete directly with what would surely be the Samsung Galaxy S5.

Tomb Raider review:

With Tomb Raider (2012) Square Enix is taking Lara Croft back to her roots in what can best be described as a brutal initiation story

Tomb Raider 2012 is a title that pretty much any young adolescant teen can remember, not least for Lara's polygon-filled figure but for its hideously addictive puzzles blended into cinematic set-pieces that saw our heroine travel the globe.

Since those first few years the brand has sky-rocketed into the stratosphre of becoming a household name senonemous with gaming, in fact Lara Croft has regularly topped many a list as the best videogame character of all time.

Square Enix, then, is under a pair bit of pressure, not least because it's taken a whole new direction but also because in some ways, it actually had no choice but to do exactly that.

While the last few Tomb Raider titles have been good, they've never really reached the standards set by the early titles, only better by the likes ofUncharted, which turned up and proved that not only was treasure hunting still 'cool' but that it could also be a hell of a lot more cinematic.

Tomb Raider: Plot

You'll be glad to hear this new direction is not one that blindly stumbles through cliches by reimagining the present, instead Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have taken the bold move of heading back into the past, this time telling a coming-of-age story with a 21-year old Lara Croft struggling to find her place in the world.

Unfortunately any 'what shall I do with my life?' questions are firmly removed from her vocabulary as she finds herself shipwrecked on an island with little or no training and significantly injured.

From here on Tomb Raider is quite simply a relentless, desparate, primal battle for survival that finds you moulding this timid but headstrong character into the hot pants-wearing treasure hunter that we know today.

Without giving too much of the plot away this is very much a 'in it for the long haul' kinda story, there's no quick fixes and no way of avoiding how to learn to use a knife all the while battling to save your friends and escape from the island.

Tomb Raider: Characters

At present the only two main characters we know of are Conrad Roth and Lara Croft herself. Conrad Roth is the captain of the doomed ship and also happens to be a personal friend of Lara's father, he's very much the mentor of the game and can sometimes be your only link to other allies over a walkie talkie.

Tomb Raider: Gameplay

 

 

There's no denying it, Tomb Raider has bitten the Uncharted bug, this doesn't turn out to be a bad thing but it can seem a little off putting at first.

Luckily in the demo we played it becomes apparant fairly quickly that any such influence is limited to the use of cinematic camera angles and the occassionally staggering set piece which involves assisted involvement from you.

This is where the similarities end however for while Uncharted will often coax you through its levels Tomb Raider does everything in its power to make you feel as uneasy and as naive as the character you're playing.

The HUD is non-existant, aside from prompt icons and the ability to temporarily show your objective the screen real estate has been entirely devoted to the harsh jungle that we found ourselves traversing.

Each level is a bubble, an open world landscape that can be explored, with a base camp as your HQ you can hunt, explore and upgrade using a experience points system that allows you to increase your abilities, from shooting to creating objects from junk.

It's a neat and inventive way of showing her transition from novice to pro and the few upgrades we saw really affect how Lara interacts with the world.

This leads us to the character herself. While we only saw one level, the 20mins of gameplay we did experience hammered it home that this really is a character that will not help you, she's as unsure of the world as you and so as a team you have to try and bring her home.

While we only experienced hunting with a bow and arrow and a small amount of shooting it looks to be a very slick offering adopting the same 'difficult to aim' tactics that many third-person games employ (Max Payne 3 we're looking at you).

Tomb Raider: Verdict

Tomb Raider has fantastic potential, with superb graphics and a storyline that feels emotional and engaging it's now up to Square Enix and Cystal Dynamics to tweak and tinker until the balance between plot, puzzles and action is perfect.

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!

Clelebrate!!!!

The Gadget Club celebrating 500 pageviews , thank you everybody .

Dark Souls : II Trailer

Dark Souls : II Trailer

From Software's Hidetaka Miyazaki was the director of both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls and his influence is everywhere in those games. He's an exceptionally sharp and unusual character, utterly uncompromising in his vision and fastidious about realising it. He takes an extremely active role in everything from art design to player feedback, from the intricacies of the game's mechanics to the overarching themes of death and hopelessness that permeate every tiny element of it. And he's not directing Dark Souls 2. Instead we've got Tomohiro Shibuya and Yui Tanimura, both of whom are a mystery. Shibuya's MobyGames profile shows games from Resident Evil Outbreak to Monster Hunter, but I don't know how long he's been at From. 

This really concerns me. When we interviewed Miyazaki in 2011, he gave the impression that he wouldn't do another Souls game unless he knew it was breaking new ground once again. Miyazaki is apparently staying on as an advisor, but if he's no longer in charge of Dark Souls, does that mean he can't think of where to take it next? Frankly, if Miyazaki can't take Dark Souls in brave new directions, I'm a bit sceptical that anyone can. A Dark Souls rehash would definitely not be the worst thing in the world, but it also wouldn't be in the spirit of the series.

Accessibility and approachability :

This is the big one. Edge magazine were the first people to see Dark Souls 2 and their issue about it doesn't come out until December 20th, but they've released a few preview paragraphs that are making my stomach tighten a bit:

"An eternal battle rages at the heart of Dark Souls II. On one side stands the stern force of challenge, the very soul of the Souls series. It has inspired thousands of fans to hack their way through two of the most demanding and rewarding games of an era, fans who expect at least the same test on the next go around. On the other side is the bright promise of accessibility. And why not? Why shouldn’t FromSoftware and Namco Bandai open Souls up to a wider audience when it could otherwise be in danger of becoming stuck in a cult cul-de-sac? [...] “I personally am the sort of person who likes to be more direct than subtle,” [Shibuya] tells us. “[Dark Souls II] will be more straightforward and more understandable.” We sympathise if that sort of statement concerns you, but at the same time, we can surely agree that we would all like to see Dark Souls attain as great a presence as The Elder Scrolls."

Straighforward and understandable are two adjectives that do not exactly roll off the tongue when talking about Demon's or Dark Souls. I am absolutely not a fan of treating gaming as a horrible self-congratulatory incestuous hardcore niche rather than a huge and wildly varied entertainment medium, and I'm not about to go all hipsterish about Souls and claim that it can only possibly be any good if it's not popular, but it would break my heart totally to see it sacrifice what it is in order to become something that Namco/From/whoever imagines will appeal to more people. Absolutely no to this. I really, really hope this doesn't happen.

The trailer music :

This is probably amazingly paranoid and nitpicky, but that trailer music just isn't giving me the Souls feeling. I mean, the beginning's fine, but then the voiceover starts and it's an... American guy? Or maybe Australian? Nothing against Americans or Australians, obviously, but Demon's and Dark used more olde-worlde British and European voice work, which really became a part of the games' personalities. I'm just... not sure what this is. The accent has thrown me.

THAT'S NOT WHAT'S REALLY BOTHERING ME, THOUGH! Hear that, starting innocuously about halfway through? That's electric guitar. Nonononono. Power chords over a title screen is not Souls AT ALL. Try bleak nothingness punctuated very occasionally by eerie discomfiting choral noise or screams of pain.

Those power chords. They chill my soul. Nggggg. Still, it's only the trailer. It's only the trailer. *bites nails* .

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist Preview

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist

Plot

Following the events of Splinter Cell: Conviction, the President of the United States, Patricia Caldwell, officially terminates Third Echelon and orders all their current operations grounded immediately. President Caldwell chooses to replace the corrupt agency with the newly-formed "Fourth Echelon" - an elite team of operatives, drawn from different agencies, that operate in a mobile environment and travel the globe performing individual missions assigned by the President. Sam Fisher is formally appointed acting commander of the agency.

While Fourth Echelon conducts their primary mission of shutting down all Third Echelon activities, a group of twelve rogue terrorists initiate a terror ultimatum called "The Blacklist" - a deadly countdown of escalating terrorist attacks on United States assets.

Fisher and his team must now track and hunt these terrorists down, by any means necessary, and stop the Blacklist countdown before it reaches zero.

Along with President Caldwell, Blacklist sees the return of Anna 'Grim' Grímsdóttir, and will include the addition of new characters named Isaac Briggs and Charlie Cole.

[edit]

Gameplay

Blacklist introduces a new gameplay mechanic called killing in motion, allowing the player to highlight targets and take them out in quick succession, with a new fluidity while on the run. As well, there will be voice integration with Xbox’s Kinect peripheral, which will allow gamers to say things to distract enemies and then attack.

[edit]

Multiplayer

The game's designer Maxime Béland confirmed that the "spy vs. mercs" competitive mode from the prior games of the series would be making a return.^[2]

[edit]

Development

In November 2010, Jade Raymond from Ubisoft Toronto announced that the studio was developing a new Splinter Cell game^[3] During the Microsoft's press conference at E3 2012, Splinter Cell: Blacklist was officially revealed; the talk highlighted new features for the series including Kinect integration.

It was also announced that series veteran Michael Ironside would not reprise his role as the voice of Sam Fisher, with this part filled instead by actor Eric Johnson, who will also be performing motion capture duties. In a "Blacklist" developer diaries Ironside stated that he would not return to voice the character, but instead pass the torch to another actor.

Ubisoft executives said that the change was made to take advantage of new performance capture technology to create a richer experience, with Ironside assisting Johnson in the role. Elias Toufexis, voice actor for Andriy Kobin in Splinter Cell: Conviction, has a major role in the game.^{[citation needed]}

[edit]

Pre-release reception

Based on early screenshots and videos of Blacklist, the game been praised for removing Conviction's monochrome visuals, according to Joystiq.com's Mike Schramm.^[4] The voice acting, however, has not been well received by fans.^[5] Ubisoft responded with a statement saying that Ironside wasn't returning as Fisher because they needed an actor that was "physically capable" of a motion capture performance. Thus, Johnson was hired for the job.^[6]

 

Battlefield 3 'End Game' DLC dubbed 'lethal high-speed warfare'

Just the other day, we posted a rumor that Battlefield 3's latest -- and presumably last -- expansion titled "End Game," will include a jungle-type setting.

Now DICE has shed a little bit more on the expansion ahead of its debut trailer slated tomorrow for Battlefield 3 Premium members.

Over on the official Battlefield 3 page, DICE lists End Game as:

Battlefield 3: End Game delivers some of the most high-speed warfare to date across four vast maps. Race through enemy lines using the new dirt bike, bringing speed and agility to the Battlefield, or fight back aerial assaults with new lightweight AA vehicles. Coordinate lightning fast attacks and defenses in the return of the classic Capture The Flag game mode. In the skies, the new dropship introduces the ability to turn the tide with rapid deployment air drops of troop transports.

So, as expected, four new maps are confirmed along with new vehicles and even the return of the Capture The Flag (CTF) game mode. 

In addition to that, the studio has also detailed the expansion's key features, which you can see below.

• Four new maps designed for high speed combat and action
• Three new vehicles including the fast and agile dirt bikes
• New dropship provides support to ground troops with vehicle drop capabilities
• Return of the classic Capture The Flag game mode

While I think new Assignments are a given, does this mean that there won't be any new weapons to go with End Game? We can only speculate for now until DICE releases the official details. 

Right now, we know that there will be four new maps, a new dropship that allows a mobile spawn point (a la Medal of Honor Warfighter), and the return of CTF. For Battlefield 3 fans, is that enough to make you buy End Game or are you already a member of BF3 Premium so it doesn't matter anyway?

If this is indeed the final expansion for Battlefield 3, what do you want to see DICE implement in Battlefield 4?

Sony Vaio Duo 11 Revew

Sony's convertible tablet is more clunky than cool :

The good: The Sony Vaio Duo 11 has a fine set of specs for an ultrabook and an excellent full-HD touch screen on which to take advantage of the Windows 8-style interface.

The bad: The Duo's design misses the mark for use as a tablet and a laptop, feeling like too much of a compromise.

The bottom line: While there are certainly things to like about the Sony Vaio Duo 11, the design gets in the way of enjoying them.

Sony is selling the Vaio Duo 11 as being the best of both worlds: a full-HD laptop and touch-screen tablet in one. And it is both of those things -- sort of.

It does have a full-HD 11.6-inch display. The display is a touch screen. The Duo can be used as a tablet and, thanks to Sony's Surf Slider design, the screen can be lifted and slid back to reveal a keyboard. It's the "best" part we object to, because while it sounds cool, the design is disappointing for several reasons.

Outside of the design, the rest of the Duo -- components, performance, battery life, Windows 8 usability -- all adds up to a good tablet/computer. But we expect there will be many more convertible tablets like the Duo coming soon, so you may just want to take a wait-and-see approach with this category for the time being.

Design
No one we showed the Duo 11 to was impressed with the design. The idea, yes; everyone was in agreement that a device that works as a full Windows 8 laptop and a tablet is solid. But the Duo isn't it and comes off as a tablet cobbled together with a makeshift keyboard.

Used as a tablet, the screen -- while really nice and responsive -- is a little too big to hold comfortably, so it's best used on your lap or on a table. Certainly not the end of the world, but if you're looking for a tablet to use while walking around, you'll definitely want to lay hands on a Duo to try out before you buy.

 

The real disappointment comes when you slide back the display, though. First, if you hand it to someone who's never opened it, they can't figure out how. And even if they do know how, it's not terribly easy. You need to lift up on the display from the back, but there's nothing really to pull up with and if you're not paying attention, it's all too easy to attempt to lift from the wrong side and potentially rip the screen off its hinges.

With the display up, you'll see a keyboard that looks not unlike the type made for an Apple iPad. However, because of the wide-screen display and the need to counterbalance it when up, the keyboard is wide and slim, resulting in some very small keys. Unless you're a very accurate typist, it's probably going to take a lot of practice to type efficiently on it. At least it's backlit.

 

There's no touch pad, but instead there's an optical pointer. It's a little touch-sensitive nub between the G and H keys along with three mouse buttons at the bottom below the spacebar. Not having a touch pad mainly proved a problem when using the traditional Windows Desktop interface, since the Windows 8-style interface is designed more for touch-screen use. In other words, for one interface the Duo is great, for the other, not so much.

Sony includes a digitizer stylus, which can be used instead of the nub or for writing and drawing on the screen with certain applications, including a note-taking app called Note Anytime and the excellent ArtRage Studio Pro. The problem with using the stylus instead of a touch pad is that you have to keep picking it up and putting it down. Also, when you're not using it, there is no place on the body of the Duo to stash it.

 

Lastly, the screen support mechanism itself is a bit of an issue for me. From the side, you can see two ribbon cables coming up from the body of the keyboard section to the display. You can also see its hinges and springs, the inside of the plastic back panel, and, well, it just generally looks unfinished. Plus, there's no adjustment of the screen angle, which makes some sense because the keyboard section has to balance the screen when upright. It also means, though, that if it's not at a good angle for how you're seated or your lighting, you're out of luck.

Features
On the inside, the Duo 11's main components aren't different from those of other ultrabooks we've tested, including a third-gen Core i5 processor, 6GB of memory, and a 128GB solid-state drive (SSD). The display, on the other hand, is.

Price as reviewed	$1,199.99
Processor	1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U
Memory	6GB, 1,333MHz DDR3
Hard drive	128GB SSD
Chipset	Intel HM76 Express
Graphics	Intel HD 4000
Operating system	Windows 8 (64-bit)
Dimensions (WD)	12.6x7.8 inches
Height	0.71 inch
Screen size (diagonal)	11.6 inches
System weight / Weight with AC adapter	2.9 pounds / 3.5 pounds
Category	Convertible

 

Yes, it's a touch screen, but it also has a 1,920x1,080-pixel native resolution using in-plane switching technology for excellent viewing angles and color consistency. Many of the ultrabooks we've reviewed have used 1,366x768-pixel-resolution screens that wash out or invert colors off-angle. The glass goes edge to edge, too, which allows swiping in from the edge of the screen for Windows 8 features like quickly switching to previously used applications.

 

Helping mark the bottom and top of the display are a Windows Start Menu button and a 2.4-megapixel Webcam with a Sony Exmor R sensor. The screen automatically -- and slowly -- changes orientation depending on how you're holding it, which can be irritating as it pops into different views. There were several times when sliding the display up that the picture would rotate upside down, forcing me to tip the computer forward to get it to right itself.

Alienware X51 review :

Good

• Extremely powerful
• Small size means it's easy to fit in your living room
• Relatively affordable

Bad

• Low-power PSU limits upgrade options
• Styling won't appeal to everyone 

Gaming desktops are usually enormous, power-hungry machines covered with more glowing lights than the Vegas strip. But what if you need something smaller for your living room but don't want to sacrifice power? Alienware reckons it has the answer in the form of the X51 -- a console-sized desktop PC with enough power to tackle serious gaming.

My review model came packing an Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 555 graphics card. It's available now for £900 or you can opt for a lesser configuration from £650 if money is short.

Design and build quality

The first thing you'll notice about the X51 is its relatively miniature size. Most desktop PCs designed for gaming are enormous beasts -- just look at the gargantuan Alienware Aurora -- but the X51 is just a little bigger than the most recent Xbox so you won't need to make special modifications to your house to accommodate it.

If you worry about angry glowing alien head logos frightening the kids, the X51 is small enough to hide away in your TV cabinet.

Rather than have it sitting below a desk in your study or bedroom, it can happily rest in the space by your TV. The small size will appeal to families who don't want the eyesore of a huge PC tower slathered in glowing lights in their living room, but still need something brutal to tear into the latest games. If you've been trying to convince the other half to let you install a powerful rig in the one spot you entertain guests, you might have better luck with the X51 than the Aurora.

The X51's styling will be immediately recognisable as an Alienware machine to anyone with even a passing interest in PC gaming. On the front edge, you'll find Alienware's logo -- an alien head -- which glows when switched on and can be turned 90 degrees so it's the right way up if you want to lay your PC flat.

You can push this animal on its back, if you like, but be careful it doesn't bite your fingers off.

The outer casing is made from black plastic, with the usual angry-looking ridges and vents along the top. It's a very Alienware look. Fans will be pleased to see the inclusion of glowing slivers of plastic on the side -- these can be configured to have either the same colour as each other and the front Alien head, or alternating colours if you're feeling fancy. I naturally opted for hot pink and set about telling everyone why this was the only colour you should ever use ("because it's awesome!").

The styling definitely won't be to everyone's tastes -- fans of country pine bookcases and Laura Ashley curtains won't be too keen -- but it's at least small enough to slot away somewhere inconspicuous.

Upgrading to Blu-ray from the standard DVD player will set you back £90.

On the front edge you'll find a slot-loading DVD drive, which you can upgrade to a Blu-ray drive. It'll cost you an extra 90 quid, but if you're hoping to use the X51 as a media centre in your living room, it's probably worth the extra cash. You'll also spy two USB 2.0 slots as well as headphone and microphone jacks.

On the back are two HDMI ports (one of which is on the graphics card), four USB 2.0 slots, two USB 3.0 ports, jacks for a 7.1 surround sound speaker system, two DVI ports and Coaxial and TOSLINK digital audio outputs for feeding high-quality sound to home theatre systems.

There are plenty of ports for an entertainment set-up, with two HDMIs, surround sound and digital audio outputs.

As a small PC, the X51 has been custom-built to make sure everything fits just right. This makes it more awkward to get in and fiddle about with in the same way that you would with a regular desktop PC. Sliding off the side panels was a tricky process that initially flummoxed both myself and GameSpot's Mark Walton. Our attempts at replacing components was fraught with problems -- something which I'll return to later.

When it's all closed up, it feels particularly solid. The side panels don't offer any flex and it's reassuringly free of creaks or clicks when you poke it. I'm satisfied that it's built well enough to justify the price tag. It's not as though you're going to be carrying it off on your travels anyway.

The Alienware keyboard is nothing special but will suffice for sledging your mates during games.

The X51 is just a desktop PC, so it doesn't come with a monitor, unless you buy one with Dell at the time of purchase. If you've already got a decent monitor, you can just hook it up to that. It comes with an Alienware keyboard and mouse, which are pretty bog-standard affairs. They do the trick for everyday use, but if you're a hardcore fragger, you'll want to upgrade to something ridiculously fancy with more buttons than a Boeing 747.

What, no garish flashing light show -- just a mouse?

Performance

Stuffed inside my review unit is a serious line-up of specs. It's packing an Intel Core i7-2600 quad-core processor clocked at 3.4GHz, backed by a meaty 8GB of RAM. I took it down the CNET UK testing chambers and, with a trembling hand, ran the benchmark tests. Unsurprisingly, it provided excellent results.

First of all, I fired up the PCMark05 test, which looks at how well the processor can perform tasks like web-page rendering and moving files around. It clocked up a score of 13,138 -- an extremely impressive total and one that beats the menacingly powerful Toshiba Qosmio X770 gaming laptop.

A score like that hints that this machine will happily chew through any office tasks without breaking a sweat. That is indeed what I found during use. Heavy multi-tasking was handled with aplomb, thanks to the healthy portion of RAM, and demanding programs will run without trouble.

Its powerful graphics card will lend a hand with photo and video editing too. It managed to encode my 11-minute 1080p video file into 24 frames per second H.264 in just over 4 minutes. That's a lightning fast time, and easily beats the X770's 11-minute attempt. If you're hoping to use the X51 as a media centre, rest assured that it will handle playing back your high-definition files without the slightest hiccup and will happily chomp through your holiday pics and video clips editing.

Of course, the X51 is first and foremost a gaming PC, so I rolled up my sleeves and checked out how it handles the polygons. It's packing an Nvidia GeForce 555 graphics card with 1GB of DDR5 memory.

On the 3DMark06 benchmark test, the X51 scored higher than any other computer I've seen.

I booted up th 3DMark06 benchmark test and was given the astonishing score of 21,762 -- easily the best I've seen on a computer in my time at CNET UK. By comparison, the MSI GT680 laptop -- which performed extremely well -- only racked up 13,995 on the same test.

Numbers aren't everything though so I installed some of the latest, shiniest games and took them for a spin. To start, I loaded up my favourite racer Dirt 3 and took the car for a spin through the Finnish hills. The resolution was ramped to 1,920x1,080 pixels and all settings were set to maximum.

The X51 maintained an average frame rate of 50fps, with a maximum of around 65fps, resulting in superbly smooth gameplay and no noticeable lag. Moving on to caped beat-em-up Batman: Arkham City, again with maximum settings, the X51 achieved an average frame rate of 45fps with a high of 71fps -- enough to keep even the most demanding gamers satisfied.

If gloriously-coded RPGs are your thing, then you'll be pleased to know that it was able to run Skyrim at max settings with an average frame rate of 45fps. That made traversing those wide open plains and shooting arrows at dragons and mammoths -- and maybe a few children -- particularly satisfying.

Also pleasing was the average 100fps I observed when playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. If that frame rate doesn't get you worked up, then there's just no hope for you. Considering a frame rate of around 25fps is perfectly playable, anything that pushes 100fps isn't to be sneezed at.

Should I get the X51 or an Xbox?

Most gamers will already own a console, be it an Xbox 360 or aPlayStation 3, so what does the X51 offer to warrant splashing considerably more cash?

Tonnes more power than the Xbox and more versatile, the X51 will be worth the investment if you're looking for an all-rounder.

Well, first and foremost, the X51 is considerably more powerful than the Xbox. Intense games like Skyrim will play at higher frame rates, offering smoother graphics and speedier loading times. That also means that it's better equipped to handle the new major titles. The Xbox has been around for a long time and many users find that it's just not up to the task any more.

If you're a firm fan of the arm-waving, limb-flailing fun you can have with the Kinect sensor on the 360, you might be pleased to know that the sensor is now available for Windows, meaning that you can hook one up to your X51 and set about looking like a fool in your living room.

Of course, the X51 is also an extremely competent PC, so you're getting the benefits of office work, proper Internet browsing, photo and video editing and all the social networking you could dream of.

Gaming prowess aside, the might of the X51 will demolish regular PC tasks like video editing without a pause.

Given the 7.1 surround-sound sockets and the digital audio connectors for a home theatre system, the X51 would also function extremely well as a media computer. Fill its 1TB hard drive with your favourite TV shows and movies, hook it up to your TV using the HDMI output and relax as you watch Kristin Stewart explore the whole gamut of emotion.

It's more expensive than an Xbox, sure, but it can act as several devices at once -- your media centre, office PC and games console. If you're sat there thinking, "Yeah, Andrew, I totally need all of those things," then you could buy the X51 and potentially save yourself a bundle.

Can you use the Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 in the X51?

The GeForce GTX 680 is Nvidia's new flagship graphics card. It's based on what's known as a Kepler architecture, which means that it provides better performance while keeping operating power low. We've already seen how well this new tech works in Acer's Timeline U laptop that provided incredible gaming grunt while being slimmer and lighter than even most regular laptops.

The joy of desktop PCs for many is the fact that you can rip the panels off and replace the components when your existing ones no longer cut the mustard, thereby saving yourself a chunk of cash by not having to upgrade your entire machine. The X51 is considerably smaller than most desktops though, so I wasn't sure how easy it would be to keep up to date. There was only one way to find out, and as I happened to have one of the new 680s lying around the office, I gritted my teeth and grabbed a screwdriver.

Cracking open the X51 was a full-on challenge, involving a screwdriver and serious amounts of coffee.

The GTX 680 graphics card is somewhat bigger than the original GTX 555 and it was a very tight squeeze to fit it in, requiring some creativity (i.e. force) with the power cabling. Eventually though, the card was in place and I eagerly hit the power button.

So, did it work? In a word, no. The GTX 680 card needs a minimum of 550W, whereas the power supply unit (PSU) in the X51 topped out at 330W. I did manage to play some Dirt 3 and was amazed at the increased average frame rate from 45fps to 140fps. The same went forCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, in which I saw an average of around 250fps during intense battle scenes.

Sadly, if I tried anything too difficult -- like running my graphics benchmarks for example -- the computer simply turned off, acting like a stubborn toddler. It's a real shame. Make no mistake, this graphics card is an absolute monster, and having such a small PC in a living room with that kind of power would wipe the floor with pretty much every other gaming system on the market.

The power cables put up a fight, but eventually I got them to fit.

Still, there's no need to feel despondent. The standard X51 is very powerful. As Nvidia continues to develop the Kepler range to bring the operational power requirements down even further, we may well see monstrous graphics cards sitting inside tiny little chassis.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a computer for the living room that won't stick out like a sore thumb but still has the raw power to tackle all the latest titles, the Alienware X51 is an excellent choice. It might not be worth the investment if you're already a keen console gamer, but you'd be getting serious bang for a fairly reasonable buck if you need an all-rounder PC for your living room.