![]() |
![]()
Gifts for the Gamer Who Has Everything If you're looking for the perfect gift for the gamer who has everything (and money is no object), we've rounded up five ultimate prizes. Each would bring tears of joy to the ardent gamer in your life, so read on to find out what's at the cutting edge of gaming peripherals. ECCS CDS4000 racing wheel
OK, you're not going to believe this. Yes, this thing costs $1,100 (and this is not the most expensive model either). But if you are the most serious of sim racers who competes with others online, this is anything but a toy. The thing is massive - the wheel is a full 13.5 inches in diameter, which is almost full-sized, and the pedals are heavy and chunky. But the best part is that it really does help you win. If you really have everything - and money's no object - give this wheel a peek.
Read the review Eminent Technologies LFT-11 speakers
At $600, this speaker setup isn't cheap, but it is - bar none - the best. The LFT-11s are flat panel, linear field transducers, but much smaller than those from legendary speaker manufacturer Magnaplanar. The system ships with a pair of flat satellites and a hefty bass module. These speakers are big and heavy, producing a near-religious experience when firing up sound-heavy games like Wing Commander: Prophecy and Jedi Knight. Their only drawback is the lack of surround-sound capability. But with sound this good, you don't even miss it.
Read the review Seagate Cheetah 18 hard drive plus Adaptec 2940u2w SCSI host adapter This is one seriously big hard drive. It's so big, you could load up Wing Commander IV in its entirety, if you really wanted. The trick with these really big drives is speed. The Cheetah earns its name, with access times as low as 5.2 milliseconds. The Adaptec 2940u2w represents that latest SCSI technology. Coupled with the Cheetah, you get hair-raising mass storage performance. And the nice thing is that this pair just runs and requires none of the care and feeding of a RAID array.
Quantum 3D Obsidian X24 3D accelerator
This is the ultimate 3D card for Voodoo2 users: SLI on a single board. Quantum3D is known in the industry as having the most experience with SLI, having used special versions of Voodoo1 chipsets in SLI configurations in the past. This board is big and may require a custom case, but hey, if you've got everything, what's a case. At $700, this baby isn't cheap, but neither is a Dodge Viper.
Read the Cheetah review Viewsonic VP150 flat-panel monitor
The VP150 is a sweet 15-inch flat-panel display. The active matrix LCD panel pumps out a very bright, crisp image and has a pretty decent 160-degree viewing angle. In testing, we also found that images at different resolutions than the native 1,024x768 still looked pretty good - all the way down to 320x200. With a picture size very nearly as big as most 17-inch monitors and a street price close to $900, the VP150 is no more expensive than a good 17-incher was a couple of years ago. If you're tight on desktop space, but don't want to sacrifice image quality or size, check out the VP150.
| |||||||||||||||||||