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Choosing a laptop can be a pretty confusing experience, because even if you have a good idea of what features and components you’d like, finding a laptop with them isn’t always easy. Once you do find the right features, you have to decide if you like the way the notebook looks, and in the mobile gaming world that often means living with a lot of gloss and bling, or going for the polar opposite with a dull black plastic shell. We have two gaming notebooks that happen to fall squarely into those categories, but there’s a lot more to the packages than that simple description.

Can MSI or CyberPower (Clevo) put together a midrange notebook that will wow us and walk away with your gaming dollar? If not, where do they come up short? Read on to find out.

GAMING PC MAKER Alienware has announced its line of M series high performance gaming laptops, available from today.

The renowned company that’s now owned by Dell has just announced its M11x, M14x and M18x laptops, a range of high end laptops aimed at pure gamers.

The M11x is an updated version that now has a selection of Intel’s second generation of Core i processor and Nvidia GT540M graphics. It can support up to a massive 16GB of RAM and comes with HDMI 1.4 and USB 3.0.

Alienware says that the M11x will deliver up to 8 hours of battery life and weighs 2Kg. We tweeted Alienware to find out if the laptops will be available in the UK, to which it replied, “The new laptops are available in the UK now.” The updated M11x will cost around £600.

The M14x also has Intel’s range of Core i processors to choose from, Nvidia GT555M graphics, HDMI 1.4 and USB 3.0. It has a 14-inch screen, supports up to 8GB of RAM, has 6 hours battery life and weighs 3Kg. Alienware said that the M14x will be priced at about £730 with 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive.

Alienware also announced the M18x, which is the top of the range for the M series and will be available next month. Its outstanding feature is the fact that Alienware will factory overclock the Intel Sandy Bridge Core i7 processor to a whopping 4GHz.

The machine will have an 18.4-inch screen with 1920×1200 resolution, but the downside to this beast of a laptop is the fact it weighs a colossal 7kg. Wireless HD streaming video and audio is an option with the M18x and pricewise the notebook will set you back around £1,200. µ

Boutique gaming systems are usually big, fancy, ornate affairs. They're often totally extreme, marketed to the Mountain Dew set, with massive cases and bright lights. So what happens when a manufacturer goes a little off their rocker, gets a wild hair and decides to see just how much power can be crammed into a Mini-ITX case? See how AVADirect crammed an AMD Radeon HD 5870 and an Intel quad-core into a case so small and light it makes other gaming machines seem like candidates for the next season of The Biggest Loser.

We managed to catch up with Ocosmos, the people behind the OCS1 gaming tablet from Douglas Davis’ keynote this morning, and got some more information regarding the intruiging new tablet. As we noted before, it’s running Windows 7, Intel’s Oak Trail platform, two D-pads, and a screen that slides up to reveal a physical keyboard.

Read on for more about this unique device.

Usually when we get to the 17"-class notebooks here, we're dealing with machines designed almost exclusively for gaming. The problem is that these machines also tend to be prohibitively expensive, owing in no small part to the healthy premiums their gaming graphics often command. So what about the users for whom gaming isn't the biggest priority, the ones major manufacturers like HP and Dell tend to target? In Dell's case, there's the Studio 17 offering targeted to media enthusiasts, and that's what we're here to investigate.

A competitive gamer loves being at the cutting edge.  Every piece of hardware needs to be meticulously set to his or her specifications and customisations – being hindered by substandard equipment is not an option.  For a number of years, Logitech have played a role in this field, trying to give the gamer what they want – assuming money is no object, of course.  Today they have announced a triumvirate of a new headset, new mouse and new keyboard to add to any prospective warrior’s arsenal, if your wallet stretches that far.

Our last giveaway was an ASRock H55M Pro motherboard. The winner? policy11. Congrats! Respond to my email with your shipping info and we'll get your prize out right away.

Today's prize actually wasn't on the original list but Antec liked what we were doing and immediately contacted us with an offering: the Antec DF-85 gaming chassis:

Read on to find out how to enter.