Dream PCs

Once a year, we challenge a select few manufacturers to build the fastest, most innovative and coolest-looking performance PCs possible, money no object. But building a Dream PC is more than simply choosing the right components and overclocking the nuts off them.

A Dream PC has to grab your attention and wow you in the same way that a supercar or jet fighter does. After all, anybody can build a PC; the trick is to design and build one that you wouldn't be able to build yourself, at least, not without tremendous effort.

The manufacturers that can successfully rise to this challenge have a very different ethos to the scores of PC builders who simply aim to sell PCs for less money that it would cost you to build one; they consider their PCs as individual works of art. Of course, a Dream PC can't be compared to the Mona Lisa or the roof of the Sistine Chapel but, compared to an off-the-shelf PC, a dream PC should be the equivalent of a Ferrari poised next to a Lada.

This might sound like a tall order but, having seen the quality and ingenuity of the PCs featured in Readers' Drives over the years, a Dream PC has to be something really special to impress the Custom PC staff and its readers.

So, without further ado, let's unveil this year's four manufacturers that are competing for the title of Dream PC 2006: Quiet PC, Scan, Vadim and Voodoo PC. As always, the rules of the Dream PC competition are few and simple - surprise and impress us, and don't worry about the price. In fact, the only hard rule this year was to supply a PC with a widescreen TFT monitor with a minimum native resolution of 1,920 x 1,200. This was because we feel that these amazing 24in monitors are what most gamers dream about owning right now. For this reason, the game benchmarks were run at 1,920 x 1,200 - after all, it's pointless having a big monitor if you can't take advantage of it.

So without further ado, let battle commence.