DREAM PCs

The theoretical choice between receiving £1 million cash up-front, and a bank account with a penny that doubles its balance each day is an easy one. Such is the expansion rate of a constantly doubling number that if you opted for the mystical bank account, within a month you'd have over £1 billion to your name, and be looking forward to an insanely profitable year.

Like the rapidly multiplying balance, perhaps the most exciting aspect of computing is the speed with which it advances. Sometimes the leaps in performance don't seem particularly dramatic, but in some cases, as with the new ATi and Nvidia graphics cards, that power is obvious. Fundamentally, computers just do lots of maths, quickly, but this is amplified so exponentially that it results in massive advances in their capabilities. PCs might have begun as beige boxes only fit for chunking through the payroll, but they're now an organic part of our lives, through which work, media and communications flow. Clicking a button seems like a natural action.

However, the vast majority of pre-built PCs fail to reflect this. Custom PC is mainly focused on components, because building your own PC is nearly always the best way to ensure it fits into your life in the way that you want. We've always believed that a good PC is more than just a collection of hardware. If anything, the standard expected of a pre-built PC is even higher: if you're paying somebody else to design and build a PC for you then you want them to do a damn good job.

However, some PC manufacturers are far more innovative than others, and over the past year, we've searched for the ones that are making genuinely well-designed PCs. Over the last year, we've reviewed a slow but steady stream of PCs, although only a few manufacturers have managed to really impress us. Sometimes we've even experienced a sense of wonder, so we really wanted to pit the makers of the best PCs directly against each other.

In almost every respect Alienware, Demonite, SavRow and Voodoo PC exceeded and excelled. They redefined the notion of a big-budget PC: in total, the four PCs you're about to see collectively cost £16,000. While you might debate whether a desktop PC can ever really be worth so much, what you can't deny is that they are four very special PCs, featuring cutting-edge design, technology and craftsmanship. From multiple TECs to over-the-top RAID arrays, and water cooling to Ferrari paint jobs, all the stops have been pulled out.

In the end, of course, there's only one winner. However, all of these are unique Dream PCs that anyone would be proud to own. Ladies and gentlemen, set your credit cards to 'destroy'. Let the box be the box and the PC... well, see for yourself.