When it comes time to build up a new gaming PC most of us want something that performs really well. We also tend to want the machine to look good and with many of the cool computer cases on the market today have clear side windows the way the hardware inside the machine looks is as important as how the case looks on the outside.

Kingston has been selling a fan specifically made for its HyperX RAM for a long time now with the same blue color that the HyperX RAM sports. That blue fan might not go well if you are into the stealth look and are using one of the many cases that are black on the inside and out. If the blue color puts you off the fan, Kingston has announced a new black colored fan that cools just as well as the blue one.

The black fan is a standalone product that sells for $23 and is part number KHX-FAN-B. The fan has a pair of 60mm fans that help to cool memory allowing you to overclock to higher speeds before the RAM gets unstable. The fans also have eight blue LEDs that glow when the fans are on. Noise output is minimal with 25dBA when operating.

Microsoft is set to launch a new online PC game store called Games for Windows Marketplace in the middle of November.

Microsoft will have over 100 titles from various game developers and studios at launch, including many of the big hits from Microsoft Game Studios such as "Fable: The Lost Chapters," "Flight Simulator," "Gears of War," "Halo" and "Age of Empires Online." Other big titles in stock include "Grand Theft Auto III," and "Max Payne" from Rockstar Games and "Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition" from Square Enix.

Games for Windows Marketplace will also host indie games too.

I thought piracy was only big on the PC? Oh how people are wrong...

Well, the highly anticipated upcoming Treyarch title, Call of Duty: Black Ops was nearly leaked onto the internet last week which caused a ruckus in the community. It has been donned "Blackgate" by one man who found himself in the middle of this mess - there is a handy YouTube video showing what has happened:

A man who calls himself "Computer Healer" had gotten news that a legit copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops was somewhere near his house in New Orleans - after reviewing the information on the disc at an Xbox 360 piracy related website, "Computer Healer" found out what he'd need to do in order to get his hands on a copy.

It felt like only yesterday that Windows Vista was released, it only felt like a few hours ago that Windows 7 was let out of the bag - but now we're hearing the early rumbles of Windows 8 and rumor has it, it's less than 2 years away.

We all know they're working on it - it is no surprise, but there something great about knowing it's on it's way. Microsoft said in a blog post on it's Dutch web site that Windows 8 is about two years from being on the market.

The comments were made on Sunday and were made at the end of a post celebrating Windows 7 first birthday. Microsoft is hesitant to comment on this sudden news of Windows 8 but their Server team did say last year that a major release of Windows Server was due in 2012 - and server versions usually lag a desktop release.

NVIDIA, following their just recently (as in 24 hours ago) big price drop on GTX460 and 470 GPU's because of the AMD Radeon 6k series launch have shocked everyone again by dropping Quadro card prices by 50%.

CEO of NVIDIA, Jen Hsun Huang had a few things to say, "We have delivered excellent results in Quadro professional graphics". "We expect to drive revenue and grow market share with new products that are gaining momentum in each of our businesses".

But, any company will say that - can't remember the last time I heard "we expect revenue to drop heavily and our share price to plummet, because we are losing market share". Enter tongue face, :P

It may be a day later than the official release of the 6800 graphics card lineup, but AMD has today made Catalyst 10.10, their latest driver release, official. Along with optimization for the new graphics cards, the new driver release includes support for Linux versions openSUSE 11.3 support (production) and Ubuntu 10.10 support (early look). AMD's HD3D Technology is also introduced with this driver release, giving Blu-Ray and Stereo 3D support. Check out the full list of updates after the break, and get your new drivers at the Source Link..

Highlights of the AMD Catalyst™ 10.10 Windows release include: (Courtesy of AMD)

New Features

The pros and cons of an SSD versus a HDD are well documented. No one will argue that the SSD offers more speed than your average HDD, but most will agree that the amount you pay for an SSD versus the storage space leaves a lot to be desired. However, users that want outright speed in their computers know that the SSD is the way to go.

SSDs that connect directly to the SATA port have bottlenecks inherent in the SATA design and to avoid those bottlenecks there are a few SSDs on the market today that plug into the PCI Express slot. A new SSD storage device has surfaced from a company called Angelbird that is a combination of a traditional SSD and one of the PCI Express SSDs.

The Angelbird device has no storage integrated into the PCI E card itself, but it is purchased with a wired SSD in 16GB or 32GB that is used for booting the computer. With a single SSD hooked to the PCI E card the device is capable of up to 285MB/s performance. The real coolness comes when you add more of the expansion modules the company offers. You can go up to four of those expansion modules and with a quartet of 120GB modules the device is capable of up to 1081MB/s data speeds. The system starts at $239.

There are many music games on the market today with offerings like Rock Band and Guitar Hero at the top of the market. There are other smaller and lesser-known music games though and some of them have some awesome controllers. Power Gig is a music game that works sort of like Guitar Hero in that you have a wireless guitar controller to play with, but Power Gig uses a real six-string guitar.

Seven45 Studios is the company behind Power Gig and it has announced an awesome new guitar controller is available for the game in versions for the Xbox 360 and for the PS3. The controller works just like the basic six string controllers for the game, only these limited edition controllers are handmade for gamers wanting the best controllers out there. The controllers are made by First Act and look more like real electric guitars than game controllers.

Each of the controllers is made by hand by First Act craftsmen and include a single cutaway basswood body, humbucking pickup, and a maple neck with rosewood fretboard. The sweet controllers each cost $250, which isn't cheap, but man are they awesome. If you have wanted to learn the real guitar, this game and the handmade controller with real guitar playing action might be the perfect way to learn. The game is available right now but the controllers can only be pre-ordered at this time.

Word has quickly started to get around regarding the AMD Radeon HD 6850 carrying with it 1120 Shaders. This afternoon when I was testing for my HD 6850 OC article, I noticed that in GPU-Z my HD 6850 was listed as 1120 Shaders. When I realized I double checked the video card to see if it was actually the HD 6850 and it was.

I had a look at my Sapphire card and noticed that it also showed 1120 Shaders. With the version of GPU-Z being brand new, I put it down to nothing more than a software error since both cards showed it. It's becoming widespread that the cards actually have all 1120 Shaders enabled.

While it doesn't skew our opinion of the HD 6850, it does affect the overall performance. At the moment, though, we don't have a BIOS for the HD 6850 that's only 960 Shaders. Next week when everyone starts to get back to work, namely AMD and its partners we've got samples from, we will speak to them about the situation.

The gaming world has many iconic characters that have been part of some of the most important video games around. A few of these iconic characters include fan favorites like Pac-Man and Mario. Nintendo has been celebrating the 25th birthday of Mario all year long and has offered some cool facts about the game and is offering up some cool new bundles of hardware for Mario fans.

The latest hardware bundles include special edition glossy red Wii and DSi XL game systems. The red Wii bundle includes a glossy red console, the new Super Mario Bros. Wii game, a red Wii Remote Plus controller with built-in Motion Plus capability, a red nunchuk, and the Wii sports game that typically comes with the Wii. The coolest part is that the special edition console has a price that is affordable at $199.99 while supplies last.

The red DSi XL bundle has Super Mario Bros. themed graphics, includes Mario Kart DS game and a pre-loaded Brain Age Express title. The DSi XL bundle will also be offered only while supplies last and will sell for $179.99. Nintendo has also unveiled a new FlingSmash bundle that has a game with pinball action and the new Wii Remote Plus controller inside for $49.99.