It was 2011 and Intel saw a surging trend in mobile computing. Notebooks were to become thinner, batteries had to last more, optical drives were going away, and performance, performance didn't have to suffer too much. So Intel pushed forward by investing $300 million of its own money to make it happen. That's what we know today as the ultrabook initiative.

Today we are checking out Gigabyte's flagship ultrabook, the U2442F which comes armed with a 3rd-Gen Core i7 processor, plenty of memory, and a quality SSD. The U2442F is as capable as a high-end desktop.

This touchable, classy ultrabook is targeted right at the road-warrior, power-hungry, super-user. The S7 is an expensive machine. The starting price hovers near $1400, but our Core i7 configured spec clocks in at $1650. For the price customers do see a superlative spec sheet and a beautifully designed body.

I know what you're thinking. The S7 had better be amazing for that kind of money. Don't worry, with a few qualifiers, the Aspire S7 easily ranks among the top Windows 8 machines. Is that enough to justify the cost?

NEC has expanded its Lavie notebook family with a new premium system that is said to be the thinnest offering of its kind. At its slimmest point, the 15.6-inch Lavie X ultrabook measures only half an inch thick (12.8mm) -- a feat that required extra-thin internal components...

TigerDirect offers the OCZ 256GB Agility 4 for $159.99. This $30 mail-in rebate drops it to $129.99. With free shipping, that's $0.51/GB, tied with an August deal, and the best price we've seen for this drive. It's a current price low by $54. This drive features read speeds of up to 420MB/s...