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Having a gadget encased in ice is always a cool stunt (pun intended), but Fractal took one step further by using blocks of ice cut out of a Swedish river, and then have them shipped  all  the way to Computex in Taiwan. Apparently that's how Scandinavians roll. As for the actual products, frequent desktop builders may have already heard of Fractal for its silent, minimalistic chassis, which recently made their way to the US market. While we didn't get a chance to check out how quiet the live machines were, the cases' build quality was surprisingly solid for their prices, and we were also impressed by the attention to detail on damping noise wherever possible. Hit the source link below to check out Fractal's Define, Arc, and Core series cases. Visualized: the coolest desktop chassis at Computex, literally Fractal

We'll readily admit that Thermaltake's Level 10 GT case isn't for everyone. Its exeskeleton-emulating protrusions don't exactly blend in well with living room decors, and the company seems to like it that way. Computex 2011 has been the  victim  host to a whole bevy of customized Level 10 GTs, which exhibit a love for all colors in the rainbow and a fascination with the humble LED light. Underneath the aesthetic excesses, however, you'll find a practical and very roomy case that'll happily serve as the fashion-challenged home to your next super rig. 200mm fans spin almost inaudibly, individual hard drive enclosures make hot-swapping storage a doddle, and as you'll see in the gallery below, all the mods feature retractable headphone hangers. What will they think of next? Thermaltake Level 10 GT hands-on and mods at Computex

NVIDIA has been pushing its 3D Vision platform for a couple of years and at this year's Computex it is looking to pull in more PC users with new wired LCD active shutter glasses. The original wireless specs rely on the same IR sync tech and battery power seen in glasses for many HDTVs, but these get power and data over a 10-foot USB cable. While that might not work for living room viewing, a single user application like PC gaming or watching a Blu-ray 3D on a laptop doesn't suffer for the cable restriction. Besides foregoing the sometimes finicky IR sync these are also cheaper, with a $99 MSRP when they go on sale in "late June" compared to $149 for the wireless version. The company hopes the combination of a lower entry price and ability to be secured to the PC make it a viable option for gamers who may already have a compatible LCD and GPU, or gaming cafes that want to run a few  Starcraft II  tournaments in 3D. NVIDIA

North Korea has already made its mark on the tablet market -- albeit a rather unimpressive attempt -- and even produced a supreme leader-approved OS, and now the DPRK is further proving its tech ambitions with the production of three different PC models. In a post published to  PCWorld  today, Martyn Williams reports on a March 10th state TV broadcast that revealed a North Korean factory where workers are busily assembling the machines by hand. According to Williams, the models in production include a desktop PC and a netbook-sized laptop, designed for educational use. The third variant, an enterprise laptop, boasts dual USB ports, internet connectivity, and two and half hours of battery life. That's about it in the way of specs, but from what we've seen, we doubt these machines are set for world domination. For a series of screen shots from the broadcast, check out Williams' blog at the coverage link below. Update : Surprise! The North Korean netbook, pictur...

It may look like a space heater (in the best way possible, of course), but what you're looking at is actually Digital Storm's very first pre-built gaming system, the ODE. Available in your choice of "Good," "Better," "Best," or "Ultimate" configurations, the rig packs a Core i7-2600K processor that can be overclocked to 5.0GHz, along with NVIDIA GTX 570 graphics (SLI in all but the lowest config), a standard 8GB of RAM, plus a regular 1TB hard drive that can be paired with an SSD up to 120GB -- not to mention that nice red glow, which shouldn't actually give off much heat thanks to some liquid cooling. Check out the gallery below for a closer look, and hit up the source link to place your order if you like what you see -- this one starts at $1,499. Digital Storm ODE Digital Storm

Splitfish is finally bringing its flagship PC and PS3 mouse controller to the Xbox, albeit packing an odd wireless caveat. Although the FragFx Shark 360 is billed as an identical twin to its PS3 counterpart, this half-gamepad and rodent combo, much like a XIM adapter, needs a wired Xbox 360 gamepad to act as an intermediary between itself and the console. That wired controller plugs into the Shark's wireless USB dongle; the macro-equipped "fragchuck" and mouse themselves are completely untethered. It sounds a little janky, but if your faith in mouse superiority is strong, you may be forgiving it for its faults come late August. Hit the break for a full list of features and glittery PR wonder. Splitfish

A slide-out tablet running on Windows 7, you say? Not to be confused with the Samsung Sliding PC, what we have here is the Fujitsu LifeBook TH40/D that's just been announced for the Japanese market. Inside this 2.4-pound convertible laptop you'll find a 1.5GHz Oak Trail Atom Z670, 1GB of non-expandable DDR2 RAM, a 10.1-inch 1,024 x 600 touchscreen, a 120GB 4200rpm hard drive, and a battery life of around 6 hours. Other tidbits include 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, HDMI-out, an SD card slot, and a teeny optical trackpad placed next to the short space bar. Can't say we're digging some of the limitations on this TH40/D, but if you still want one, then be ready to fork out about ¥80,000 ($990) at the end of June. Akihabara News ,  IT Media Fujitsu

Mmmm, there's nothing like some shots of a slim new PC to get our gadget senses all tingly, and Dell's done just that via a new video. Posted on its Facebook page today, Round Rock's latest laptop -- which likely claims XPS lineage -- is looking lean and clean, with a couple of USB 3.0 ports and lattice-work speaker grilles. There's not much more to say, so we'll let the vid speak for itself. Enjoy. Update:  Michael Dell did it again! We just caught the CEO tweeting "Dell XPS 15z Coming soon!" and linking to the same video after the break. Looks like someone doesn't get the idea behind teasers. To be fair, though, you can actually see the moniker at about 8 seconds into the clip. CNET Dell [Facebook]

It seems Fujitsu's got a thing for morphing PCs. Way back in 2006, we saw this mysterious tri-fold concept, which was rumored to be making the rounds inside Fujitsu R&D, and now the outfit's short-listed this déjà-vu-inducing transformer for its 2011 "Life with Future Computing Award." The Flexbook, designed by Hao-Chun Huang, features a foldable 21:9 touchscreen and similarly flexible keyboard that allow its users to switch from laptop to tablet to book-like e-reader. It's also been designed to sport a number of interchangeable sleeves in a Benetton-esque array of colors and patterns. It might have seemed impractical five years ago, but with convertibles coming of age, we'd say the Flexbook isn't really all that far out. Flexbook Concept designboom

Recently we have seen so many advertisment and photos of Sony’s Vaio portable pcs or you can say pocket pc. Almost every where we saw that such photos were displaying. But lenovo already imagined such kind of portable pcs before two years. This pocket PC was called Pocket Yoga. We have seen sleek laptop, tablet laptop. Mac Air and now this is the time of Portable or Pocket PC. This portable pc covered by leather giving it more attractive look. Extra wide touch screen is extra bonus to the owner. Keyboards designed as per the comfort of normal users. But the main attraction is belt clasp which can be turned into the use of mouse. Designer : Lenovo via Gizmodo lenovo-pocket-yoga1 Certainly this one is most attractive looking portable pcs of today’s era. lenovo-pocket-yoga2 lenovo-pocket-yoga3 lenovo-pocket-yoga4 lenovo-pocket-yoga5 lenovo-pocket-yoga6

Sure, a lack of first-party tools never kept you from bending the Kinect to your diabolical whim, but Microsoft's taking some time out at MIX 11 to talk about the official Kinect SDK for Windows and show off a few demos. Mind you, all of that's going to happen on stage over the course of the next hour, so we don't have many details for you right now, but Redmond says devs will have access to not only the basic color and infrared depth cameras, but "robust skeletal tracking" of two simultaneous individuals as well, and perhaps most excitingly, full access to the Kinect's array of four microphones for noise canceling and voice recognition complete with API support. Hate to say it, Kinect hackers, but the bar's about to be bumped up. Keep it locked right here and we'll let you know if the Microsofties reveal anything else fun! Update:  Yep, we're getting some Kinect SDK details now -- Microsoft says you'll be able to write Kinect apps for PC in...