As we reported on the 6th March,
the Commodore brand has been resurrected from the abyss and stamped on a range of PCs aimed at the gaming market. The company has made some specs available for the top-range kit, but prices won't be announced until later this week.
Before we detail the specs, however, SPOnG has got to fall to nostalgia for a moment and point out to the youngsters that at one time the Commodore name was associated with two of the greatest machines known to the planet: the C64 and the Amiga. The startling thing about these pieces of hardware was not only that they were technologically brilliant, priced sensibly and supported by a large community, but that it did not take ultra-billions of dollars to develop software (and not just games) for them.
As a side note, the Amiga was also, obviously, way better than the Atari ST.
Yes, we know its simply harking back to a more innocent time, when everything was trees, and you didn’t need an agent and a hair-stylist to be a video game maker. So, we’ll shut up and move onto the specs for the new PCs, which are to launch at CeBit in Germany’s famous Hanover this week.
Bala Keilman, CEO for Commodore Gaming, commented that his company, “…wanted to bring something new to the market, in the spirit of our Commodore heritage, and have worked hard to design a fully personalised product”.
Beware a little though, Bala, as that heritage not only features the C64 and Amiga but also has some dark and desperate times – including ownership by the QVC cable telly shopping network.
The stand-out factors of the new range is that, we’ll let Commodore tell you, “…a revolutionary painting process, (which means that) the exterior of the Commodore Gaming PC becomes an open and inviting canvas just waiting to be experimented with. Fans and artists alike are requested to present their creative works to become the next limited edition C=kin.
“This focus on design and personalisation can even be seen in the small details: two multicoloured LED lights inside the fans can be independently controlled to change or enhance the mood with an ambient glow. Meanwhile, a new Ice Cube cooling system provides extreme levels of cooling, reducing the core temperature by up to seven degrees and ensuring optimum efficiency.”
There are two flavours of Commodore Gaming PC: the entry level Cg and the more ‘extreme’ Cgs, Cgx and Cxx variations.
As we go live with the story, only the specs for the Cxx are available.
Commodore Cxx:
Processor:
Intel® Core™2 Extreme quad-core processor QX6700, 2.66 8M Cache
Motherboard:
ASUS® P5N32-E nForce 680i SLI
Hard drive / Storage:
2x 150Gb 10000 Rpm Sata Raid 0
1x 500Gb 7200 Rpm Sata
Memory:
4 Gb Corsair Dominator twin2x2048-8500C5D, 1066MHz
I/O.:
7in1 cardreader; (Front) USBx2 Firewire x 1 HeadPhone x 1 MicroPhone x 1
Optical:
Philips DVDRW
Power Supply:
1000W ICE Cube PSU
Audio:
Creative® SoundBlaster X-Fi
Graphics:
2x nVidia 8800 GTX 768MB
OS:
Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate