Digital Home Thoughts: Maximum PC's Trifeca of Dream Machines

"Sometimes, you just have to keep things real. Last year, our Dream Machine was a paean to excess, a chrome-plated $17,000 wünder-rig. While we're still quite fond of that machine, this year we decided to take a different tack and see if we could build a more reasonably priced, but still lust-worthy Dream Machine. Well, actually, we built three of them. While the combined cost of these three machines is about half the price of last year's rig, we packed a lot of awesome into our relatively tight budgets. The lesson is simple: Dream Machine isn't about spending a ludicrous amount of cash on a PC, it's about getting the best rig you can for the money you spend. I think you'll agree that these three machines pack a ton of power and are all great values."

Instead of the usual over-the-top geeky madness that ends up with a computer well north of $20,000 USD, the crew over at Maximum PC has created three different machines, each aimed at a different budget. It's impressive how much performance you can get for not too much money. Their entry-level $690 machine boasts an overclocked three-core CPU running at 3.6 Ghz and an ATI 4870 graphics card. Not bad at all!