Its custom-tailored, game-maniac desktops are already extreme enough for most players, but Alienware says it'll get more hardcore in the fourth quarter of 2004: The high-performance PC specialist will cap off its forthcoming ALX brand with exclusive Video Array graphics acceleration technology that lets two video cards process commands in parallel. Rather than alternating scan lines, the two cards will divide the work by rendering the top and bottom parts of the screen, dynamically shifting from a 50/50 to 70/30 or other split depending on display content.

Alienware says the new graphics subsystem will work with off-the-shelf rather than specific cards, letting users double up on the 3D accelerator du jour (although two identical cards from the same manufacturer must be used). It'll debut in X2, an Alienware-designed, dual-processor-capable motherboard based on Intel's forthcoming "Tumwater" chipset that will include dual PCI Express slots for estimated performance gains of over 50 percent in high-end gaming, real-time rendering and animation, professional design and engineering, and flight-training-style simulations. Alienware says that plugging in a pair of dual-head video cards will allow a four-monitor solution.