Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Gaming System

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, August 07, 2008, 02:15 PM EDT

Unlike the enthusiast system manufacturers, Alienware and VoodooPC, Richmond, Virginia-based Velocity Micro is still an independent, privately held company. In fact, Velocity Micro is doing well enough on its own to have even purchased the enthusiast, boutique system maker, Overdrive PC last year. On top of that, Velocity Micro is one of the few (if only) independently owned, U.S.-based, high-end gaming systems manufacturers that--in addition to selling direct--also sells its systems at Best Buy and Circuit City. That's a claim that even Velocity Micro's competitors, Oregon-based Falcon Northwest, New Jersey-based Maingear, and California-based Vigor Gaming, can't make.

As do most enthusiast system manufacturers, Velocity Micro makes hand-built, high-end gaming rigs using top-of-line components. We received the highest end model in the company's Edge series, the Z55. Velocity Micro configured it with a few options, taking the system price up to $2,664 and we put it through its paced in this hands-on evaluation. Read on to see how the Edge Z55 faired...

Velocity Micro Edge Z55 Gaming System

Tags: velocity, Gaming, system, Gaming System, Velocity Micro, EDGE, STEM, elocity, Gamin, MIC, Micro, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com