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...