iBuyPower Paladin 998 Gaming PC

As company names go, you can't exactly accuse iBuyPower of disguising their purpose in life.  The company has taken the wraps off of its latest gaming PC, the Paladin 998, and while it, too, won't win any prizes for subtlety it could nonetheless find some fans among gamers.  In its standard configuration, inside the Cooler Master HAF 932 case lurks an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor (Q9550), 4GB of DDR-3 1333 memory and a 500GB SATA-2 7,200rpm hard-drive, together with ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics.  However, throw your credit card at the options list and you can specify an even more impressive machine.

As standard, the Paladin 998 includes a DVD-RW and read-only Blu-ray drive, liquid cooling and 8-channel surround sound.  iBuyPower even thrown in a copy of Halo 2 to get you started.  Distract yourself with the options list, though, and you could end up with an Intel Core 2 Extreme 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor QX9770, Asus Striker II Extreme nForce 790i motherboard, 8GB of RAM and dual ATI Radeon 4870 X2 cards.

Storage can either ramp up to 1.5TB courtesy of two 7,200rpm HDDs, be swapped out for a 300GB 10,000rpm WD Raptor, or a 32GB MLC SSD.  That's before you get to the second drive option.  If you really want to push the boat out, how about dual Blu-ray burners?

The basic configuration of the Paladin 998 comes in at $1,999 with Vista Home Premium 64-bit, a 3yr warranty and lifetime support.  Start tinkering with the specs like I have, and you're looking at something in excess of $5,000.