With much of the recent media attention focusing on next-generation consoles, such as the recently released Xbox 360 from Microsoft, PC gaming has felt like the odd man out. Microsoft's highly touted "HD era," coined for the launch of the Xbox 360, seemed like an attack by omission to some PC gamers, who had enjoyed high-definition games for years. With the world's biggest gizmo expo, the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show, under way in Las Vegas, the more malleable PC industry shot back today--and the finger on the trigger belonged to Michael Dell.

　　Late last year, Dell Computer affirmed its commitment to PC gaming with new additions to the XPS line, a range of computers designed specifically with high-performance gaming in mind. Today, Dell targeted the gamer with expendable income by announcing the XPS 600 Renegade, a souped-up limited edition of its gaming behemoth, the XPS 600.

　　The Renegade features a chassis with artwork designed by the Picasso of airbrushing, Mike Lavallee of Monster Garage fame. But it's not the looks of the box that will have gamers' heads spinning.

　　The computer will run four GeForce 7800 GPUs, two more than the maximum allowed in the standard XPS 600. In tests, the rig and its Intel Pentium processor Extreme Edition 955 were factory overclocked at 4.2GHz, making it one of the fastest computers (if not the fastest) on the market.

　　The Renegade is scheduled to be available in the first quarter of 2006 with marketing and sales largely through Dell's online site. A base price has not yet been announced, but Dell admitted it would be "a lot."

　　Dell is also a leader in computer displays, and he showed off a new 30-inch LCD monitor, the Dell UltraSharp 3007WFP, that he is particularly proud of. Dell proclaimed that the monitor has "over three times the resolution of so-called 'high-def gaming' that comes with an Xbox 360."

　　The monitor requires graphic cards that support dual-link DVI connectivity for its top-tier output. The display supports resolutions up to 2560x1600, can display 4.1 million megapixels, and has a 700:1 contrast ratio and a 178-degree viewing angle.

　　The monitor will be priced at $2,199 and is available now.