If gaming-console manufacturers want to stifle innovation in the gaming industry with old, archaic hardware, it's time for game PC vendors to do something to woo the console crowd. Dell's flagship gaming PC brand, Alienware, announced the X51, a gaming desktop built around the size of a typical gaming console, but packing today's computing technologies that PC gamers have access to. It starts at US $699. Its chassis measures 343 x 95 x 318 mm (HxWxD), and can be oriented vertically, or horizontally. It features cutting-edge styling by Alienware with dashes of piano black, matte black, and lime. Its front features audio, USB ports, and a slot-in DVD-RW / Blu-ray ROM (optional).

The $699 base model is driven by an Intel Core i3 dual-core processor, though more powerful Core i5 and Core i7 processors can be opted for. Graphics is handled by NVIDIA GeForce GT 545, though GT 555 can be opted for. 4 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory comes standard, up to 8 GB can be opted for. 1 TB 7200rpm HDD storage comes out of the box, faster SSDs can be opted for. Connectivity includes 7.1-channel HD audio with Waves MAXX Audio Software, gigabit Ethernet, Wireless b/g/n, optical and coaxial SPDIF audio outputs. The graphics card gives out HDMI and DVI outputs. Yes, it can run Crysis.

EVGA released the first consumer-channel graphics card based on NVIDIA's GeForce GT 545 graphics processor. The GT 545 has been an OEM-only SKU. Based on the 40 nm GF116 silicon, the GT 545 has 144 of the chip's 192 CUDA cores enabled, the same 192-bit wide memory interface, but making use of DDR3 memory instead of GDDR5 on the GeForce GTX 550 Ti. Clock speeds set at 720 MHz core, 1440 MHz CUDA cores, and 900 MHz (1800 MHz effective) memory, churning out memory bandwidth of 43 GB/s. There is 1.5 GB of memory.

EVGA's implementation resembles NVIDIA's reference design. It uses a short full-height PCB, and a single-slot cooler. Display outputs include one each of HDMI 1.4a, D-Sub, and DVI. It can pair with another card of its kind in 2-way NVIDIA SLI. Backed by 10 year warranty (if purchased this month), the EVGA GeForce GT 545 1.5 GB is priced at US $150.