Without fail, boutique system builders like Maingear are quickly updating their desktop offerings to include AMD's freshly launched Radeon HD 6800 series graphics cards. The Radeon HD 6870 and 6850 are now configuration options on the company's Vybe and X-Cube machines, which start at $775 and $845. Naturally, that price gets you modest hardware like the Athlon II X3 445 and a Radeon HD 4290. You'll have to spend another few hundred bucks to get anywhere near AMD's latest cards.


In addition to announcing the availability of the Radeon HD 6800 series, Maingear has launched two new notebooks, the Clutch-13 ($1,099) and Clutch-15 ($899). Both sport a 1366x768 display, up to 8GB of RAM, a 750GB HDD or 512GB SSD, an optional Blu-ray drive, and the standard connectivity. The 13.3-inch model is powered by an Intel Core 330UM and integrated graphics, while the 15.6-inch system can be outfitted with a Core i3, i5 or i7 processor and a discrete GeForce GT 330M GPU.