Apple iPad 2 (Wi-Fi)

It started as something of a laughing matter. Back in January 2010, as we reported from the theater in the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, Apple's Steve Jobs divulged the details of what he termed a “magical” new computing device. To be sure, there were more than a few snickers at that term. But on that morning, something of a tech revolution welled up…and its rumblings haven't subsided one bit.

At the time, though, within hours, tech pundits everywhere had dissected the details to the nth degree. Online forums were abuzz with vitriol...who really needed a device like this? And plenty of wisecracks were made about Apple’s choice of the product’s name: iPad. Really? "iPad?"

No one’s laughing now.


Approximately 15 million iPads later, this iconic, lusted-after gadget is either the most successful mass-impulse buy in the history of modern electronics, or it struck a genuine chord with plenty of users. We're putting our money on the latter. It has spawned thousands of iPad-exclusive apps; a slick daily newspaper from News Corp. (The Daily); radically new forms of content consumption, such as ad-hoc mashups like Flipboard; and money for the countless developers, small and large, creating the iPad's universe of apps. All the while, a storm of innovation and disruption have swirled around this impassive slab of glass and metal.

Here in March of 2011, it’s time for the slab itself to see some changes of its own. We got our hands on the Wi-Fi edition of the Apple iPad 2 on the day of its release (March 11), and our team put it through a regimen of hands-on trials, timing tests, benchmarking, and much more. We looked at it next to the original iPad (see our deep-dive review of the original Apple iPad), as well as in light of several competitors on the market now (the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Motorola Xoom).

Bottom line? Make no mistake: The iPad 2 keeps the iPad family cemented in place as the tablet models to beat—and in many ways, emulate—here in early 2011. We’re not convinced, though, that the iPad 2 is a must-have upgrade for most current owners of the original iPad. But we think the second-gen tablet is a no-brainer choice over the first version, given a choice between the two. (The first-gen model remains available, at least for now, at reduced prices.) If you’re a first-time buyer, or someone looking for a second iPad for spouse or house, this is the one to get.

Worth noting: The unlimited “all-you-can-eat” data plan that AT&T offered for the original iPad is no longer an option, and Verizon doesn’t offer any such thing. As a result, if you’re considering a 3G-capable iPad, you’ll need to estimate your monthly data usage in megabytes. Of course, everyone consumes media differently (streaming video, uploading pictures, and the like), so that number will be different for everyone. AT&T offers a handy Data Calculator that will help you estimate your monthly consumption; it’s useful as a gauge for either carrier’s plans...

When considering whether to get a Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi-plus-3G model, you need to consider a few X-factors. AT&T’s iPad data plans include access to the carrier’s nationwide network of Wi-Fi hotspots; using your iPad on one of those doesn’t deduct from your data usage. If you know you have one of these nearby, you may be able to get by with a lesser data plan. And if you already own an iPhone 4, both carriers also offer $20-a-month iPad Wi-Fi “tethering” plans. You can add one of these to an existing iPhone plan for use with a Wi-Fi-only iPad 2. With tethering, you would use your smartphone as a Wi-Fi hotspot, and your iPad 2 would connect to it. In a nutshell, the tethering plans include 2GB of iPad data access, and you can save some bucks on the iPad purchase itself if you go this route, since the Wi-Fi-only iPads are cheaper.

Consider all of these factors as you look at the panoply of iPad 2 models, since only you can gauge your own usage patterns, locations, and frequencies. Our one firm caveat: The 250MB AT&T plan seems woefully inadequate if you’ll be streaming basically any video or many media files over the cellular signal, and its overage charge is steep. We’d recommend this plan only if you know you’ll be using the iPad's cellular connection for e-mail and light Web browsing, and not much more.

We tested the least expensive model of the iPad 2, the $499 16GB Wi-Fi-only version (incidentally, in black). Here are our impressions.

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Desktop Computer Origin PC Genesis

We’ve been waiting almost a year for it to happen...and it finally did. Origin PC, a newcomer to the boutique-PC world, founded by former Alienware employees, has bagged the benchmark-breaking banner from the $7,000 configuration of Maingear's Shift that we looked at in late 2009. At $6,699 in our test configuration, the Genesis certainly isn't your everyday desktop, but it sliced through our suite of tests like a ninja with a good eye and a bad temper.

Considering the system’s spate of high-end components, its stunning performance is to be expected. Like most boutique systems, though, you can pick and choose your parts. Our Genesis build came stuffed with an Intel Core i7-980X Extreme Edition six-core CPU overclocked to 4.5GHz. Mated to that was 6GB of 1,600MHz DDR3 memory and a boot “drive” that consisted of two 50GB OCZ Vertex2 solid-state drives (SSDs) in a RAID 0 configuration, which splits the data across two drives for increased speed. Talk about silicon lighting! (There’s also a 1.5TB mechanical drive for storage, but they’ve become so passe lately.)

However, the Genesis’ pièce de résistance is its graphics subsystem. Not content to go with a pair of high-end cards, Origin tucked three of EVGA's 1.5GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 boards inside. Despite a sextet of very, very quiet fans that Origin calls "Noiseblocker Multiframe High-Performance Ultra" (how's that for hyperbolic nomenclature?), the main components are all water-cooled. And a whopping 1.5-kilowatt SilverStone Strider power supply keeps the whole joint jumping.

To say this collection of PC parts whizzed through our demanding set of benchmark tests with ease would be a gross understatement. Our productivity tests, which represent the typical tasks that most demanding computer users perform on their PCs, didn't faze the Genesis in the slightest. Our 64-bit Cinebench 10 test, designed to take advantage of multicore processors, saw the Genesis score a rather astounding 35,156 against the previous champ, Maingear’s Shift, which managed "just" 23,404. To give some perspective here, the mainstream Gateway DX4840-15 ($849, as of November 2010) turned in a score of 10,363 in this test. Clearly the Genesis' overclocked six-core CPU is a performance powerhouse, but it helped the system turn in more impressive numbers as well.

The Genesis took just 1 minute and 22 seconds to convert our 3-minute test video in our Windows Media Encoder 9 test, while the Maingear Shift needed 1:38. Sixteen seconds may not seem like much of a difference, but if you're working with lengthy HD-quality videos, expect the disparity to increase drastically. The Genesis also converted our 11 MP3 test tracks to AAC equivalents in our iTunes test in a mere 1 minute and 51 seconds, compared with the Shift’s 2:05. Again, 14 seconds difference might not seem like much, but if you're converting gigabytes of files, the time difference will increase substantially.

In PCMark Vantage, a compendium of tests designed to measure overall system performance, we saw the Genesis earn a score of 24,339, while the Shift came in just a bit behind here, with 23,404 (both in 64-bit mode). That mainstream $849 Gateway tower? It garnered 8,472 on the same test.

But while the Genesis' productivity performance is record-breaking by a fair bit, it's gaming performance that these high-end machines are really built for. Last year's Maingear Shift was certainly stunning in that department, packing three ATI Radeon HD 5870 cards. But the folks at Origin have the benefit of a year's worth of PC-component progress at their disposal, and so were able to pack in a trio of more-powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 cards, which certainly don't disappoint.

In 3DMark Vantage, a synthetic benchmark that measures a PC's graphics acumen, the Genesis scored 106,252—our highest result ever achieved on Vantage's Entry setting—against the Shift’s 52,674. Skipping over the two intermediate modes and jumping to the Extreme setting (the level that these beastly PCs were built for) saw the Genesis continue its dominance, scoring 29,662 against the Shift’s 20,663.

Moving on to real-world DirectX 10 gaming, the two systems were fairly matched at resolutions of 1,680x1,050 and 1,920x1,200 in Far Cry 2, which has its own benchmarking program tucked inside the game. It wasn’t until we stepped up to the 30-inch-screen resolution of 2,560x1,600 that the Genesis pulled away, scoring an average frame rate of 206 frames per second (fps) to the Shift’s 170fps.

Unfortunately, our DirectX 11 benchmark test, Heaven, wasn't available back when we first reviewed the Shift. Still, the Origin’s performance level is unmistakable. At the test’s lowest resolution, 1,680x1,050, the Genesis pumped out 96.6fps. Jumping to the maximum resolution, 2,560x1,600, saw the Genesis’ frame rate fall, but only to 51.6fps. Considering this is the most demanding gaming test we run, and a single GeForce GTX 480 graphics card turned in just 23fps on this test at the maximum resolution, the Genesis' score here is stunning.

Performance aside, whoever came up with the concept of good things coming in small packages might want to rethink the issue as it applies to the Genesis. It’s not often that record-breaking performance results come from a small-form-factor PC, and that’s certainly not the case here. In fact, the Genesis rolled up to our door as 118 pounds of extreme technology packed in a 34x32x17-inch wooden crate. Our UPS guy, a veteran deliverer of many a hefty PC, noted, “This thing is really packed well,” as he transferred the Genesis into our care. That vocal validation from a packaging professional should give you some assurance that your high-end PC investment will arrive in one piece. Of course, almost anything can happen when shipping a large PC full of heavy components, but Origin certainly isn't skimping when it comes to packaging.

That said, we suggest you invite your friends over to watch with envy as you unpack this behemoth—after all, you'll likely need some help. Even uncrated, the Genesis case itself measures 24x9x24 inches (HWD), and is still a lot to handle. (Besides, with extra people standing around, you'll have more eyes to notice the expansion foam stuffed inside the case that needs to be removed before you can power up the Genesis.)

Inside the case, thanks to the three double-wide graphics cards, PCI-card-expansion options are essentially nonexistent. Technically, there's a free PCI Express x1 slot, but while the slot is visible, unless the card is as thin as they come, it won't fit next to the bulky graphics cards.

There is, however, room for two additional 5.25-inch external drives, two 3.5-inch internal drives, and one 5.25-inch internal drive. A second optical drive, to complement the PC's existing 12x Blu-ray burner, might be a smart upgrade if you burn a lot of discs. The 40-in-1 flash-card reader poking through the front panel should suffice for your varied flash-card needs.

External expansion options certainly aren't lacking. The Genesis has a drop-down panel up front that reveals three USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, and connections for a headphone and microphone. Around back, you’ll find the usual analog/digital connections (here, supporting 8.1 integrated audio), as well as four more USB 2.0 ports, two USB 3.0 ports, a FireWire port, and a powered eSATA port to keep you connected to a plethora of devices.

So, for the moment at least, the Maingear Shift has been toppled as the all-out performance king. Origin has certainly earned the benchmark-buster label with its impressive Genesis tower. It's a stunning performer with top-of-the line performance. We'd prefer slightly more spacious SSDs as the boot drive, but you can configure those, along with most other components, at the Origin PC site before buying. But the battle of boutique builders is never over (so long as enough well-heeled consumers keep buying these beasts, at least), and a new, upscale 2010 version of the Maingear Shift has also just arrived on our test bench. We can only wonder, for the moment at least, whether the Genesis will retain its well-earned purple reign.

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Apple iPad 2 (Wi-Fi & 3G Version, AT&T)

In early 2010, Apple rewrote, or one could argue, revivified, the tablet-computer market with the original iPad. With the success of Apple's tablet, makers started scurrying to catch up, and we saw product after product that attempted to siphon off some of the iPad's mojo. More than a year and 15 million iPads later, we are only now starting to see a few, such as the Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, that can even be considered competition. But with the iPad 2, Apple takes the standard-bearer of tablets and makes it thinner, lighter, and more powerful. And perhaps just as exciting, those that opt for the 3G version are no longer strong-armed into using AT&T as their wireless carrier, since, like the latest iPhone, the iPad 2 is available in discrete versions that run on AT&T's or Verizon's network.

For a full review of the Apple iPad 2, read our deep-dive analysis of the Wi-Fi version. Indeed, most of the core features are exactly the same between the Wi-Fi and 3G versions. Here, we'll concentrate on the performance of the 3G version of the iPad 2, as well as take a closer look at the differences between the two versions of the iPad 2.

Key Features of the 3G iPad 2

The 3G version of the iPad 2 is almost identical to the Wi-Fi version in every way. It's ever-so-slightly weightier than the Wi-Fi version—by 0.02 ounce to be exact, such a small amount that it's hardly worth considering. Once you activate your cellular plan (click here for a breakdown of costs associated with the various plans), your 3G service will automatically default to being active on the device. To turn it off (to preserve battery power, for instance), just tap on the Cellular Data menu under the Settings icon, and tap the slider to Off. Here, you can also turn data roaming off (important for avoiding a costly bill when traveling outside of the boundaries of your data plan) and view your account status.

3G Performance

To test the iPad 3G's data service performance, we used three tests. We ran all three tests outdoors, in six areas of Manhattan: The Metropolitan Museum of Art on the island's Upper East Side, Grand Central Terminal in Midtown East, Times Square in Midtown West, Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District, Union Square, and on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge, in downtown Manhattan.

The first trial we ran was SpeedTest.net's Speed Test, which measures download and upload times on the 3G network. Since this test can be highly dependent on outside-network traffic factors and other variables, we won't use numbers to compare it with other tablets. What we did learn from this test, though, is that, while AT&T's service may not always be quite as bad as its reputation, we certainly did see huge variances in numbers, depending on whether we were in a busy area or a low-traffic area. As we suspected due to past experience, and as we had seen before on our iPhone, AT&T's service in ultra-busy Union Square is abysmal. When we sat in relative solitude in a park near the Brooklyn Bridge, however, the performance was outstanding.

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Tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (16GB)

Place the Galaxy Tab 10.1 next to the iPad 2, and you might mistake one for the other. They both have a black bezel that surrounds the screen and a silver edge all the way around their bodies. The most immediate difference between them is that the iPad features a physical home button on the bottom bezel (when you hold the tablet in portrait orientation), while the Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t have any physical buttons anywhere on its bezel. (Honeycomb instead uses onscreen buttons exclusively.)

The second thing you’re likely to notice is that they’re not the same size. At 10.1 inches high and 6.9 inches wide, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is higher than the 9.5x7.3-inch iPad 2, but not quite as wide. This disproportion is mostly a function of their different screen sizes. The Galaxy Tab 10.1’s display measures 1,280x800 pixels, while the iPad’s 9.7-inch screen is 1,024x768. This also means that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a wider aspect ratio (16-to-10) than the iPad 2 (4-to-3). If your primary reason for wanting a tablet is to watch lots of wide-screen movies, the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s higher resolution and wider screen would be the smarter choice.

The 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab is on the left; the 10.1-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is in the middle; and the 9.7-inch Apple iPad 2 is on the right.

You’ll also find fewer physical buttons on the edges of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 than on the iPad 2. They both have power/lock buttons and volume-rocker switches, but the iPad 2 also has a switch that can mute the volume or lock the display’s orientation. If you want to mute the Galaxy Tab 10.1, you have to manually lower its volume or set the volume level in the device’s onscreen settings. Also, locking the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s display orientation is only possible via its settings menus. Both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad 2 sport 3.5mm stereo-headset mini-jacks. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 comes with a stereo headset in the box, and the iPad 2 does not.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the iPad both include front- and rear-facing cameras. The iPad 2’s front-facing camera is positioned on the top bezel when holding the tablet in portrait orientation. In contrast, the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s front-facing camera is on the top bezel when holding the device in landscape orientation. Where the respective manufacturers placed their front-facing cameras indicates how each envisions the devices being used most often. For the Galaxy Tab 10.1 it’s landscape mode, for the iPad 2 it’s portrait mode.

Among the things the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has that the iPad 2 doesn’t is a flash for its rear-facing camera. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 also has a pair of stereo speakers (one on each side, when in landscape mode), while the iPad 2 has just a single speaker located on its back face. One thing that both the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad lack, though, is the ability to add removable storage. Unlike the Galaxy Tab 10.1’s 7-inch predecessor, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 doesn’t have a MicroSD card slot.

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Sony Tablet S - Android Tablets

The first thing you’ll notice with the Tablet S is its shape. Its wedge-shaped design is meant to mimic a magazine, bent at the fold, with one side thicker than the other.

When using the tablet in landscape mode, you hold the thinner side of the tablet at the bottom, with the thicker side at the top. Either way, holding the tablet by the thicker side in portrait mode in your right hand (or your left, leaving your right to tap the screen) or by the thinner end in landscape mode in both hands, is quite comfortable. The back is coated with a textured, smudge-resistant coating that also adds to the overall comfort of holding the tablet. In addition, the Tablet S has two little feet on the back, near the top (or thicker) edge, that elevate the rear of the tablet (in landscape mode), making it easier to see and use while lying flat on a desktop or other surface. Doing this with a flat tablet produces so much glare that you usually need to stand directly over the device to see the screen, so here, the wedge design is a definite winner.

Sony has done a good job squeezing a lot of tablet into a small, light package. It measures 9.5 inches long by 6.8 inches wide by 0.3 inches deep (at the thin end), and weighs only 1.3 pounds. Compared with most other tablets, the Tablet S has very few buttons and ports. In landscape mode, along the left edge are an audio jack, a Micro-USB port, and a full-size SD Card slot. You also get a Micro-USB–to–standard-USB adapter, which allows you to plug in a jump drive for additional storage or data transfer.

Along the right edge are the power button, a battery status light, volume controls, and a reset button. All other buttons, such as Back, Home and Keyboard, are onscreen icons that display in the lower-left corner. The power adapter is located on the upper-left, or thin edge, of the wedge shape so that it is positioned on the bottom-left in landscape mode.

This tablet has the obligatory two cameras—a 5-megapixel on the back for shooting pictures and movies, and a 0.3-megapixel (VGA) camera on the front for videoconferencing. We took several snapshots and short clips with the rear camera and got passable results—the ho-hum, okay-but-not-clear-enough pictures and movies we get from many tablets and smartphones. The front camera worked fine for videoconferencing, though.

As you'd expect from Sony, the 9.4-inch, 1,280x800-resolution, IPS (In-Plain Switching) LCD shows photographs and movies beautifully. The IPS technology, also used in Apple's iPads, makes for excellent viewing at any angle, and the TruBlack Technology coating, which Sony also uses in its digital photo frames, provides rich blacks and high contrast with reduced reflections. That said, the screen wasn’t very bright: We had to turn the brightness all the way up to get the best results. The iPad 2 and Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 screens are much brighter. Brightness aside, movies and photographs displayed as well or better than we've seen on most other tablets. And sound was also quite good—distinctively better than many notebooks we've seen with touted high-end sound systems.

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Desktop Computer Digital Storm ODE

Whether you’re being pelted by a hailstorm of components flying at you from an online PC configurator, or just tired of putting boxes of parts together on your own, reaching the "confident and contented" stage of computer buying often isn't easy. That's especially true when you're buying a configurable performance PC. For some buyers, having too many choices can be almost as bad as none at all.

Digital Storm is no stranger to custom PCs that give buyers an almost infinite, and potentially paralyzing, choice of parts. The company has rolled out an alternative, however, to its own overabundance in the form of its new ODE lineup of desktop tower computers. The ODE line consists of four preconfigured systems, ranging from a Level 1 model (rated “Good”) at $1,199 to a Level 4 (“Ultimate”) model at $3,499. These PCs are prebuilt, pretested, and ready to go out the door within three to five business days, rather than the usual weeks of waiting that often tie up the arrival of a fully customized system.

Design-wise, Digital Storm has also decided that white is the new black (which, itself, was the new beige). Mac owners have known for years that white computers can look good, but the ODE line is one of the few Windows PCs we've seen to make the leap. The systems are housed in Corsair's white version of its very smart-looking Graphite Series 600T mid-tower case, with black trim accents and black ventilation grilles on the left side, front, and top. (Read our full review of the Corsair Graphite Series 600T.) The grilles are there for improved interior cooling, but visually, they work well, too. The black-on-white, understated aesthetic is a pleasing alternative to the typical over-the-top styling that's the norm among gaming PCs
Components & Caveats

We have to warn you of something before we go any further: The specific configuration of the “Level 2” ODE system we tested doesn’t exist anymore. It officially slipped out of the standard configuration while we were in the process of reviewing and editing. As a Digital Storm spokesperson told us, "Depending on current pricing of components, Digital Storm will switch some [parts] out so the ODE always has the fastest components at the best possible price." So Digital Storm may well change the parts even further by the time you actually read this.

While that complicates our review, it sounds like a good policy for potential buyers. Looking over the current ODE offerings (as of this writing, in the first week of December 2011), it appears that the Level 2 review system that we tested now most closely matches the current ODE Level 1, packing the same Intel Core i7-2600K processor and 8GB of RAM, and with a pretty-close price of $1,539 (versus the previous $1,599 price of our review unit).

So, what are the main differences between our test system and what's currently offered in the ODE Level 1? Our test machine sported a pair of Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti cards and an 80GB solid-state drive (SSD), paired with a 1TB hard drive. The current Level 1 configuration makes do with a single, more powerful GeForce GTX 570 graphics card, and it nixes the SSD. Our system also shipped with a Blu-ray optical drive, while the current Level 1 is saddled with a plain-old DVD burner. We wouldn't exactly call those changes a step up, but Digital Storm has now pegged this system the Level 1 (rather than the Level 2 we tested) and dropped the price by $60.

So bear all that in mind while you read through our review. PC parts change rapidly as new products get introduced, and price changes make different options more appealing to PC makers. By the time you read this, more of the ODE's internals might have changed. So be sure to reference Digital Storm's ODE page to be sure of what you're getting before buying.

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Desktop Maingear Shift Super Stock

So, you could attribute the Shift Super Stock’s sterling gaming performance largely to the advancement of technology that’s occurred since late 2010. But Maingear's got more in its repertoire than just shiny new high-end components. This Shift carries a quad-core Intel Core i7-2600K CPU that, while a speedy and smart balance of price versus performance, is normally outclassed by the costlier six-core Core i7-980X that was found in our Origin PC Genesis configuration.

But Maingear took the Core i7-2600K CPU, which normally runs between 3.4GHz and 3.8GHz (its speed is variable, thanks to Intel's auto-adjusting Turbo Boost tech) and adds what it aptly calls its "Redline Overclocking Service," cranking the CPU up to a mighty impressive 5GHz. Do this without the right expertise and impressive cooling, and your CPU will supernova in the blink of an eye. But Maingear has added its (aptly dubbed) "Epic 180 Supercooler" to the hyper-clocked processor in this rig. The Epic 180 is a new self-contained water-cooling system backed by a 180mm fan. We're exceedingly impressed with the cooler since, despite the aggressive overclock, the Shift's CPU was still solidly ticking after days of testing. That being said, we're happy that, given how much the CPU is being pushed in this PC, Maingear includes a generous three-year parts warranty with the Shift. (More on that in a bit.)

Two memory slots are free, but don't expect to plug any extra expansion cards in between the three graphics cards.

Moving away from the CPU, to the rest of the Shift's innards, you’ll quickly notice that there’s not very much room to move about inside the case. Perhaps surprisingly, none of that is because of the cooling system. The bulk of the Epic 180's hardware (namely the radiators) are stashed below the motherboard. What does dominate the interior real estate are the aforementioned trio of GeForce GTX 580 graphics cards, each equipped with 1.5GB of GDDR5 memory. They take up the bulk of the space inside the case, blocking all other card expansion, unless you happen to have a PCI Express x1 card lying around that's about three inches long. The memory slots are easily accessible, however. Two slots are filled with 8GB of Patriot DDR3-1866 memory; the other two are unoccupied, so adding extra memory will be an easy upgrade.

If external port expansion is more your speed, there are enough USB ports (four 2.0, six 3.0), eSATA , and FireWire sockets on the back panel and under the pop-up cover on top of the computer (where you'll also find a multi-format card reader) to handle a plethora of peripherals and external drives. The usual analog and digital connectors for 7.1 surround sound are also present so that your external audio can be as impressive as what's inside the Shift.

In a bold move for a computer at this price point, or perhaps once again indicative of the progress and price drops that bring bleeding-edge tech to more affordable levels, Maingear included two 120GB OCZ solid-state drives (SSDs) our test config of the Shift. They're configured in a RAID 0 (striped) array that improves performance but doesn't offer the protection of file redundancy. Since this system is aimed squarely at gamers and speed freaks, that's fine by us, especially since the Shift is also equipped with a 2TB mechanical hard drive to store your voluminous media library. An LG 12x Blu-ray reader/DVD drive burner is also on board for HD movie duties.

You can fill the three internal drive bays (as well as the two externally accessible bays) with whatever you want, either when configuring the system on Maingear's site for an added up-front cost, or down the line on your own when you decide the Shift's generous drive assortment is no longer sufficient for your needs. We think that day, if it ever comes, will be at least a few years in the future. The 1,200-watt Silverstone power supply Maingear includes with this configuration of the Shift should suffice for about all conceivable future upgrades we can think of.

As for the case itself, the Shift is housed in the same chassis that we've seen previously: a brushed-aluminum beauty that's large and intimidating, and feels very solid. Instead of the traditional motherboard orientation, where the ports and card connectors run along the back of the case, the Shift's case rotates the motherboard 90 degrees so the ports live on top of the case, underneath a snap-off panel. This orientation is becoming increasingly common in high-end systems and cases, as it lets the heat from components rise naturally up and out of the case.

If you're tired of black being the new beige, however, you do have options at Maingear, but don't expect them to come cheap. Six colors other than the basic black our review unit shipped with are available (Brandywine, Purple, Cobalt Blue, Frost White, Organic Green, and Root Beer) for an added $599. If you're up for a two-tone look, the same color palette is available on the inside too. Brandywine is a mere $235 extra, while the others will set you back $349.

If you're selling the family farm anyway, you can toss $1,200 more into the pot and opt for carbon-fiber-reinforced panels on the exterior of the system. That doesn't guarantee your PC will be bulletproof, but it will sure look that way. At least you'll have something to hide behind when the angry creditors come calling.

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