Dream PCs

These days, it's incredibly easy to go online to your favourite etailer and spec up a top-notch PC. But constructing something special that stands out from the crowd of PCs that Custom PC readers have built is a somewhat more involved task.

That's why every year we unleash the dogs of war and hounds of chaos, and invite a select number of professional PC builders to show off their engineering prowess. The Custom PC Dream PC Labs test is the gentleman's club of PC builders; just to receive an invitation you must have the technical ability and, more importantly, the vision to design and build a PC that will grab the attention of the world's most discerning PC buyers.

So, for the last few months, six companies around the world have been beavering away in their secret labs, burning the midnight oil in their efforts to build the fastest, best-looking and quietest PC possible. The ground rules of the Dream PC competition are simple: there is only one rule, and that's to make us sit up and take notice of your creation. Each system should demonstrate that hard-to-define but all-important 'wow' factor that separates a true Dream PC from an off-the-shelf high-end PC from ABC Generic Computers, Mouldy Old Industrial Estate, Milton Keynes. After much deliberation by their creators over what components to use and how to cool them, considerable wailing and gnashing of teeth, and a few bruised egos, all six systems arrived in the hope of winning this year's Dream PC award. The reviews are presented in order of Overall score, culminating with a duel at dawn between the two finalists. Let battle commence.