PC Perspective Holiday 2014 Gift Guide

Jeremy and Morry

Jeremy

Wicked Lasers S3 Spyder III and LaserSabre

• Wicked Lasers – $299.95 plus $99.95

Wicked Lasers is under new management and one thing that means is that you will no longer be able to buy products with greater than 5mW of power as of the end of the year.  That means your LaserSabre will never be as bright as it could have been if you hesitate so if you were planning on picking one up you should do it now.  Please remember that with powerful lasers comes powerful responsibility, these will permanently blind you if you look at them or even catch a beam reflected from a surface in the eyes.  Wear protective gear and never point this at anything you do not intend to set on fire and especially never point it at anything with eyes.  Even still, LaserSabre!

PRINTRBOT Simple Metal

• PRINTRBOT Assembled – $599

The PRINTERBOT Simple Metal came in second for accuracy in Make Magazine's Fused Filament 3D Printers shootout this year.  It also retails for significantly less than the competition which is why it took the overall Thin Wallet Win.  You can build pieces of up to 150mm^3 in PLA or if you upgrade to heated bed you can also print in ABS and to improve your print quality and get a sense of how this 3D printer works the one of the first things you should print is the fan shroud.  There are larger and better printers out there but they will cost you $2000 or more, the Simple Metal is a perfect starting place on your own or with a group of enthusiasts.

Steam on Linux

• Linux is free (as in beer and speech), the games not so much

One of the biggest changes for gamers this year has been the release of the Steam client for Linux.  Originally this new was overshadowed by the Steambox announcement which unfortunately has yet to appear on the market but for your penguin loving friends that has not mattered.  The library is small compared to the Windows client but many new releases, such as the Borderlands PreSequel are up and running on Linux and available through Steam.  Drivers for NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, both the official and open sourced versions have been updated to a point where your Linux gaming experience is usually approaching par with the same hardware on Windows.  Most importantly is the fact that everyone can play Goat Simulator now!

Morry

GIGABYTE Z97X-UD5H

• Amazon.com – $181

Courtesy of GIGABYTE

If your planning on taking advantage of some of those CPU deals on a Haswell processor, you'll need an Intel Z97-based motherboard with which to pair it. Look no further than GIGABYTE's Z97X-UD5H motherboard. The board offers a solid set of features and performance matching that of top-rated boards for a reasonable price. You can see our review of it here for more specifics on the board.

Primochill Wet Bench

• PerformancePCs.com – $139

Courtesy of Primochill

While this next pick may not appeal to everyone, it is something that I stumbled upon in my efforts to find the ultimate water cooling test setup. I present to you the Primochill Wet Bench. With their Wet Bench, Primochill created a modular style open-style case made entirely of non-conductive acrylic. The motherboard sits ona top tray at a 30 degree angle. Underneath the motherboard tray sit the guts of the system (PSU, hard drives, etc) with space along a back panel to hold a 3×120 radiator by default. The case is made for water cooling systems with several configurable routing plates through the motherboard tray as well as mounting locations for system pumps and radiators along the side of the enclosure.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

• Amazon.com – $59

Courtesy of ASUS

What good is a killer rig unless you have something to use it for. This year, we've seen a resurgence of PC games, but none better than the latest chapter in the Castle Wolfenstein saga, Wolfenstein The New Order. This latest chapter in the Wolfenstein universe again puts us in the shoes of B.J. Blazkowicz at the end of World War II fighting the Nazi regime. However, you quickly find yourself in an immersive and elegant storyline as you are propelled 20 years into the future where the Nazis won the war and used their unique brand of terror to bring to life all sorts of heinous creations. Out of all the previous incarnation of the game, this was one of the most fun of them all, melding the fun of the original game play with a modern graphics engine and compelling story. Pick this one up, you will not be disappointed.