Digital Storm intros highly customizable Black Ops PC + Windows 7 update aimed at pirates, lands next week

Digital Storm has launched its new flagship PC aimed at gamers with a penchant for performance and a savings account to match. The Black Ops system is extremely configurable, and base systems start upward of $1,550 with platforms spanning Intel's Core 2 Extreme QX9650, Lynnfield-based Core i5 and i7 processors, Bloomfield-based i7 processors (including the Extreme Edition 975), as well as AMD Phenom II X4 chips.

Other options include 2 to 12GB of RAM, just about every noteworthy Nvidia and ATI graphics card on the market (including various multi-GPU configurations), add-on graphics (like a TV tuner), as many as three storage drive "sets" (disk or flash) with several RAID options, up to two Blu-ray or DVD reader/writers, Creative and Asus sound cards, and 750W to 1500W of power -- in case you need a space heater to ride out the winter.



Amenities include aftermarket CPU and GPU heatsinks, liquid cooling, a temperature display, internal lighting schemes, chassis mods, a noise suppression package, exterior automotive paint finish, factory optimization of CPUs, GPUs, RAM, and operating systems, pre-installation of select popular games, and more. Digital Storm also offers a three to five-year warranty, lifetime tech support and free (labor) upgrades, and a 72-hour stress test before your system ships.

With an average starting price over $1,700, a fully decked out Black Ops PC can easily climb beyond $10,000 -- but hey, at least there's free shipping.

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Microsoft revealed yesterday that it would release an update for Windows 7 to patch numerous holes used by pirates to bypass Windows Activation Technologies. General manager of Microsoft's Genuine Windows division, Joe Williams, told CNET that the software giant will plug more than 70 activation hacks.

What's more, the update will periodically phone home to check for additional vulnerabilities. You needn't worry though, no personally identifiable information will be transmitted according to Williams. Also, the patch is not being force-fed; users can opt out of it. Williams said the update would available for manual download via Microsoft's Genuine site or Windows Update on February 16.

Surprisingly, there's no catch -- or at least not candidly. If you don't install the patch, you will still be permitted to download other Windows updates. It's unclear whether the fixes will be present in Windows 7 Service Pack 1, in which case, they probably won't be discretionary.