The poor-nerd’s RevoDrive

The Apricorn Velocity Solo X2 is designed to do one thing and one thing only: let you upgrade your boot drive to a SATA 6Gb/s SSD on a system that doesn’t have any of them newfangled ports. Living in a world filled with PCs that could be used in the space program, it’s not a problem we encounter very often, but we can certainly understand its utility where an older motherboard is involved.

Note: This review was taken from the January 2013 issue of the magazine. 

The Incredible Hulk of laptops

Think a laptop is supposed to be a light and portable PC? Think again. iBuyPower’s CZ-17 is neither of those things. With a carry weight of almost 11 pounds and dimensions measuring 16.9x11.3x2.2-inches, this thing is huge and friggin’ heavy. Imagine lugging around a dumbbell in your pack all day and you’ll catch our drift.

Note: This review first appeared in the January 2013 issue of the magazine.

Digital Bolt Storm confirms the PC is going small

One is an outlier. Two a coincidence. But three, as we know from News Media Statistics 101, is a crystal-clear trend.

And that’s just what we have with the Digital Storm Bolt, which follows on the heels of Alienware’s X51 and Falcon Northwest’s Tiki: proof that the PC is making an assault on the living room. Of course, the “assault on the living room” is our own private fantasy about the PC pushing the traditional game console overboard—Digital Storm just presents the box as a small PC (although we will note that the machine came with a wireless keyboard and game controller).

Note: This review first appeared in the January 2013 issue of the magazine.

Mostly evolutionary

The concept of the desktop PC that folds flat like a tabletop is catching on. HP was first, with its Z1 workstation, but Lenovo brought the technology to consumer all-in-ones with its very sexy IdeaCentre A720. Now Asus has adopted the idea for its new ET2300 series (we reviewed the model ET2300INTI-B022K).

Note: This review was taken from the January issue of the magazine.