Can you believe it has been close to two years since Microsoft revealed its first all-in-one desktop? The Surface Studio has been here for a while now, and at its latest event, Microsoft revealed the new Surface Pro 2 system.

The revamped Surface Studio 2 might not look that different from the outside, but there is a lot of new things going on under the hood. There are upgraded NVIDIA Pascal-based graphics, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 2TB of SSD, and much more. Microsoft says this is the fastest Surface ever. The GPUs inside of the new Surface Studio 2 will include options for a GeForce GTX 1060 6GB and GTX 1070.

The same 28-inch display is here but this time Surface Studio 2 is 38% brighter, and has 22% more contrast. This is because Microsoft used a new LCD and oxide transistor technology. Microsoft has added USB-C support and Surface Dial integration with the new Surface Studio 2 including the latest and greatest Surface Pen.

Acer has been pushing its Predator gaming brand for a couple of years now with mixed success in the gaming PC market, but now it is entering a totally new market with its new Predator X brand which is destined to most likely not even make a scratch on the dual-CPU workstation market.

The new Predator X series was just unveiled at IFA 2018 and comes as a 2 x Intel Xeon 8180 system (these processors cost over $10,000 each), 192GB of ECC RDIMM, 2 x NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 (these also cost $10,000 each), then a mix of storage, PSU and other bits and pieces for what will most likely cost over $50,000. The system is being built for the next-gen CPUs from Intel that will arrive in the form of the Cascade Lake-SP family.

The system seems totally out of control when it comes to insane specs and equally questionable price of $50,000+ on components alone, whether Acer can sustain itself with these systems. If they're made-to-order then the company might be okay, but if they're ready on shelves and don't fly off them... Acer could have millions of dollars of unsold systems with components that are highly sought after, especially the new Quadro RTX 8000 cards.

Acer has just unveiled its new Predator Orion 5000 series gaming desktops, which can be configured with some seriously fast PC hardware that will ensure you can play any game on the market, at any resolution and frame rate.

Acer's new Predator Orion 5000 gaming desktops can be configured with Intel's latest Core i7-8700K, 32GB of Intel Optane memory, and up to 2-way NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards in SLI, just in case 4K 144Hz HDR gaming was on your wish list.

Jeff Lee, the GM of Stationary Computing for Acer's IT Products Business explains: "Getting the specs right is just half the fight. Predator Orion desktops provide a well-rounded choice for gamers with a striking chassis, built-in airflow management, expandability, and award-winning software that brings everything together, we're excited to add the new 5000 and 3000 series to the Predator Orion family, and together with the top-of-the-line Predator Orion 9000, Acer is providing a full lineup of gaming desktops that cater to a wide range of needs".

MAINGEAR Is making some truly gigantic moves in the last few months, with their latest news probably the biggest - the boutique PC maker has teamed with Joel Zimmerman, otherwise known as deadmau5 as an "advisor and investor" to the company.

He joins MAINGEAR in a time before vertical take off, with deadmau5 himself explaining: "I first found MAINGEAR when looking for a high-end PC for my studio, and started as a customer first. I became a huge fan. Since then MAINGEAR has powered all of my projects including, my recently released "where's the drop?". As a gamer at heart I'm a big believer that the future of PC gaming and eSports has amazing potential for growth. It was obvious to pick MAINGEAR as my first investment in the space and with MAINGEAR's crowd raise you can invest as well".

What will deadmau5 bring to the table? Well, he hopes to help guide the future of PC gaming with MAINGEAR by advising the company on future products and projects.

MAINGEAR CEO and founder Wallace Santos spoke about the collaboration, with Santos saying: "It doesn't get more authentic than working with deadmau5. He's an amazing artist, hardcore gamer, MAINGEAR customer, and is one of the most technically driven people I have ever met".

I reached out to Wallace and he said: "We're in the process of building something beautiful and I couldn't be happier with our accomplishments. Bringing on deadmau5 as an advisor and investor and opening up MAINGEAR for equity is going to allow to continue kicking ass in PC gaming".

Dell has just unveiled their refreshed Inspiron 17 5000-series laptops, which are powered with the latest and greatest APUs from AMD in the form of Raven Ridge.

The new Inspiron 17 5000-series come in a few different flavors with AMD's new Ryzen 3 2200U or Ryzen 5 2500U, with both versions packing a 17.3-inch 1080p TN-based display. Inside, there's up to 32GB of RAM, USB 2.0/3.0 ports, HDMI 1.4b output, 3-in-1 SD card reader, fingerprint sensor, and a tray-loading DVD-RW drive.

The strange thing here is that while Dell's new Inspiron 17 5000-series laptops rock AMD's latest Ryzen/Vega Mobile technology, it packs a 1/2TB 5400RPM (!!!) mechanical SATA HDD. 5400RPM! You know, the now super-slow throwback to the mid-2000s 5400RPM mechanical HDD.

Corsair has made some changes to its all-in-one gaming PC, with the refreshed Corsair One now capable of being configured with Intel's latest Coffee Lake CPUs, including the ridiculously fast Core i7-8700K.

Some other changes include an upgrade to the motherboard, where Corsair has switched things up with the refreshed Z370 chipset. Other than that, there's not much changed inside; so we still have two models in the Corsair One Elite, and Corsair One Pro Plus.

The Corsair One Pro Plus rocks the Intel Core i7-8700K (6C/12T), 16GB of DDR4-2666, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, 480GB NVMe SSD and 2TB HDD. The higher-end Elite model upgrades the RAM to 32GB, but includes everything else the Pro Plus comes with.

Corsair is starting the price of the One Pro Plus at $2800, while the Elite model costs $3000.

CES 2018 - MAINGEAR has unveiled their beautiful and beyond beasty new F131 Gaming Desktop with exclusive APEX Cooling, which looks absolutely delicious.

The company has packed the new F131 gaming PC with some of the latest and greatest technology from Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and others. MAINGEAR has included support for the latest GPUs from both AMD and NVIDIA, while supporting AMD's new Ryzen Threadripper (up to 16C/32T) and Intel's best Core i9-7980XE with 18C/36T.

Don't worry if you're a multi-tasker or serious workstation user, MAINGEAR provides plenty of storage options alongside up to 64GB of DDR4 RAM.

CES 2018 - Digital Storm's new Project Spark is the company's smallest mighty PC yet.

Project Spark might be small, but it can pack some serious enthusiast-grade power. The system comes with a customized liquid cooling solution that can optimize heat levels for discrete graphics cards up to an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 and an Intel Core-i7 8700K CPU.

Interestingly enough, Project Spark utilizes a new Micro STX platform to ensure a small footprint (Digital Storm says the build can deliver "the performance of a full-size desktop at a quarter of the size.") The small-yet-beefy Project Spark also comes with three M.2 storage slots, an MXM slot for discrete graphics cards, and a SATA 6Gb/second port.

CES 2018 - Now that Intel's relationship with AMD has reached this point, with the company unveiling their next-gen Core processors powered by Radeon RX Vega M graphics, and snagging Radeon Technologies Group boss Raja Koduri in the process, we can get on with the awesome product announcements.

Intel hasn't just announced a new Core processor range with Radeon graphics, it has also unveiled their latest NUC that is the smallest VR-capable PC, ever.

Intel's new NUC is codenamed Hades Canyon, which is a bit thicker and taller than its predecessor, Skull Canyon, released in 2016. The new Hades Canyon NUC comes in two different versions, with the flagship model rocking the Core i7-8809G processor and more powerful Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics, with the CPU clocking in at 3.1GHz base and 4.2GHz boost.

Apple's new iMac Pro is right around the corner, but now we're hearing that it will feature Apple's own mobile A10 Fusion processor that will be used for always-on 'Hey Siri' functionality.

The use of the A10 Fusion mobile processor is a first for Apple, but it isn't all sunshine and rainbows according to developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who took to Twitter to say that the A10 "Seems to handle the macOS boot & security process, as expected; iMac Pro lets Apple experiment with tighter control without the rest of the userbase freaking out". The developer added that unlike the Touch Bar, the inclusion of the A10 processors means the new iMac Pro might "always be running, even when macOS is shut down".

Furthermore, the developer adds that it "looks like the A10 in the iMac Pro is what boots up the x86 and passes it an EFI firmware to load. One could say that the x86 is the coprocessor, and the A10 is in control...".

This is just the beginning of Apple's even-taller walled garden, with a mobile processors that is always-on inside of your expensive new PC that should be off, when it's off... is a step in the wrong direction. I'm sure there will be absolutely no way to disable the always-on A10 Fusion processor, because we're talking about Apple here.