While Sony and Nintendo are leading the world into a frenzied state of activity when it comes to console gaming, one would wonder what has become of good old PC gaming. It started with games which were as basic as it could get. In our very first personal computers, Mine-sweeper, Pong, Chess and Pac-Man were the ones responsible for giving us our first gamers' high! Later, we graduated to games which become a little more advanced, in terms of graphics, gameplay, storyline and characters and the kind of power the system was required to have. The gradual development in the gaming arena was spurred on by the advent of broadband in the Indian market which boosted LAN gaming which in turn resulted in a lot of hardcore gamers pursuing their obsession on high-end PCs.

First impressions

The Dream PC, a hardcore gaming station, launched recently by Corsair targets exactly this audience. The PC is a combination of gaming-focused peripherals from different companies and the integral CPU components from Corsair.

During the test, the system powers up in about 50 seconds. We watch some videos and game prologues in the 22-inch Samsung LCD monitor that comes bundled with the unit. The videos are devoid of lags and stutters and the colours are crisp. The gaming monitor was 3D-enabled and we donned the uber-cool NVIDIA Active Shutter glasses to get the game on. After vrooming around some car tracks, we jumped right into Bad Company 2. The first-person shooter video game, set during World War II, had excellent graphics and the 3D effect on the monitor was impressive. Donning the Corsair HS1 gaming headphones, we plunged right in and dodged bullets, hid in bushes and shot down enemy planes as the game progressed. The experience was immersive to say the least with the combination of 3D display and headphones, which effectively cut out ambient noise.

The only bit that could be little disorienting is the fact that you might have to sit close to the screen throughout the gameplay. This, however, shouldn't pose a problem to hardcore gamers who are already used to PC gaming almost day in, day out.

Hard talk!

All the hardware components in the PC are housed in a special Corsair Obsidian Series 800D which is specially designed keeping over-clockers and hardcore gamers in mind. There are pre-cut cable routing holes to guarantee a clutter-free interior that lets air flow in easily. So even after spending hours to strike down the enemy, you'll still be far from being able to toast your bread on the CPU!

The keyboard hooked to the system was the Razer BlackWidow Ultimate. The keys were backlit with blue lighting that could be adjusted through five levels depending on the ambient light. Apart from the usual multimedia controls on the pad, you also have dedicated keys that let you save macros during the game and also let you switch between 10 different gamer profiles with customised keyboard settings for different games or applications.

We tried on the HS1 headphones with a couple of videos. The headset has an integrated Dolby system that enables it to convert stereo input sources to make it sound like a virtual 7.1 output system.

Even after a long period of time, the headphones that we had been using did not seem uncomfortable because the circumaural device was crafted with memory foam. But when we used it with our 3D Vision glasses on, it became slightly inconvenient to put them on and don them for longer periods.

Tech specs

The Corsair Dream PC comes with a 120GB solid state drive that is dedicated only for the OS and games that you might want to install in the computer. For all the other stuff that you choose to store in the PC you have a 1TB hard drive in the system. The system also comes with hot-swap bays that let you upgrade or switch hard drive with the four hot-swap bays in the cabinet. The Dream PC that we tried our hands on came installed with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional.

The system also features the high-end ASUS Sabertooth P67 ‘military grade' motherboard. The motherboard itself is juiced up with a system that detects temperature in real-time and dissipates heat accordingly. The processor is an Intel Core i7 Sandybridge and you get 12GB of RAM in the system. Now that's what you call a gamer's delight!

Rs 2.5 lakh

mahananda@thehindu.co.in

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