24k Gold, Diamond & Steel PCs from Gaiser High End

It's hard enough to keep your computers up to date these days, but now you not only have to keep up with technology, but with the Joneses, now that the hardware case itself can be a status symbol.

GHE (Gaiser High End) creates what they call "First Class Computers", luxury PCs that integrate 24k gold, tri and bi color gold, Cubic Zirconia, Palladium, Silver and Steel designs to their hard drive cases. They will do surface gilding on front or front and back and give you many options of finishes.

In lieu of cubic zirconia, you can have real diamonds or gemstones of any kind upon request. The unusual materials include Damascus layered steel and Mokume Gane (wood grain steel) or they will work with you to create a custom design. The designs from the GHEdesign PC series can also be combined and they will be happy to create individual designs according to your requirements.

They can also provide you with other casings or technical components. If preferred, they can also provide each designer casing without the technical interior.

GHE design 01 - Gold leaf, 580 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 0.12in

detail:

GHE design 02 - Gold leaf, 67 Signity

GHE design 03 - Gold leaf, 25 Signity

GHE design 04 - 25 Signity

GHE design 05 - Gold leaf, 3D milled

GHE design 06 - Gold leaf, 83 Signity

GHE design 08 - Gold leaf, 175 Signity

GHE design 09- TRICOLOR gold

GHE design 10 - Palladium & silver, 2 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 0.16in

GHE design 11 - Layered steel, 1 Signity

GHE design 12 - Layered steel, 4 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 0.31in

GHE design 13 - Layered steel, 1 Signity

HGE design 14, Mokume Gane Jazz

GHE design 14 - Mokume Gane, Jazz with diamonds

GHE design 15 - Mokume Gane, 2 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 0.31in

detail:

GHE design 16 - Mokume gane, 82 Signity

detail:

GHE design 17 Mokume Gane, Wave

GHE design 18 - Gold leaf Wave, 1 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 8.0 mm

GHE design 20 - Gold leaf 3D relief, 1 Signity, Cubic Zirconia Round Brilliant Cut, Ø 0.31in

GHE design 21- Full surface gilding on the front

GHE design 22 also available with full 24k gold gilding on front AND back.

The 'guts' of the PCs include various combined fittings from Intel Atom/NVIDIA ION to Intel Core 2 Duo, right up to QuadCore CPU. Solid State Disk with SLC chip, Blu-ray and also exclusive input devices are of course included in our first class computers.



GAISER HIGH END
Gerd Gaiser
Friedrich-Speidel-Straße 36
76307 Karlsbad / Germany

Phone:
+49 7202 709192

Another wild option for your PC are the ceramic and artist designed ones from PURE for Plushdepartment:


Need a luxury laptop to go with your Luxury PC?


Check out the luxury laptops with exotic skins, diamonds and more from EGO, go here!

And of course, the 24k Gold and diamond Mac laptop

More Stunning Body Painting: The M.A.C. Chinese Dress Exhibit

Body painting, body art or body makeup applied in a trompe l'oeil fashion on a naked or barely clad body never seems to grow tiresome. So, after sharing some of the amazing works by Emma Hack, Veruschka, Guido Daniele, and Temptu Paints with you, here's some beautiful body art of a different flavor.

The IKEA Billy Bookcase Turns 30 & Gets Its Own Book

The IKEA Billy bookcase is a legend by now. Spurring projects like Pimp your Billy,tons of fan sites, hacker sites and youtube videos, it's no wonder the world's best selling customizable bookcase now has it's own book celebrating 30 years of existence and over 41 million bookshelves sold.

The Billy:

above: the classic simple Billy in natural, white or black can then be customized with everything from glass doors, various shelves, tons of configurations and special stickers.


The Book (thanks to a reader, I now know there are 2 versions of this book, the one below in not in English and the one shown at the top of this post IS available in English):




above: The book celebrates 30 years of the Billy Bookcase

The Designer:



Created by Gillis Lundgren (above) in 1979, the bookcase is the bestselling single piece of MDF furniture in the world. Designed by only the fourth employee for Ikea, 41 million have been sold since 1979. The factory where the bookcases are made knocks out 15 Billys a minute; 3.1 million a year.

As it turns 30, some of the IKEA stores are celebrating with a 3 for 2 sale, special limited editions, events and of course, the book.

Special Limited Editions:


Designed by Annika Bryngelsson, the special edition, BILLY JADER is decorated with Shakespheare's love poems, while BILLY BJASTE was inspired by Japanese manga.





Download an animated Billy Bookcase screensaver for your mac or PC here.

See a video of What Your Bookcase Says About You and an article from BBC news here.

The Billy Ballet, an event to celebrate the 3 for 2 sale and birthday:



IKEA

When Gucci Isn't Luxe Enough As Is, Go To Republica

above: Republica adds a diamond and platinum buckle to a Gucci belt



If you're at all familiar with Stuart Hughes and his company Goldstriker, you know him as the ultra luxe purveyor of the world's most luxurious mobile phones clad in gold, diamond and platinum as well as some outrageous gifts like diamond studded golf balls and diamond chess sets.



above: some of the items available from Stuart Hughes and Goldstriker include a gold plated Bang & Olufsen Beo remote



His latest venture, along with his wife, Katharine, is a very high end fashion site called Republica in which they are customizing already luxe clothing and accessories with diamonds and precious metals.

With brands like Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Prada and Cavalli, they are creating limited versions of some of their products by adding platinum, diamonds, gemstones, exotic skins and more in limited numbers to make them even more exclusive..... and expensive.




The site just launched on October 5th and there are very few items being offered so far (3 to be exact), but here's a peek at the first items being offered by Republica.

Gucci Belt with Diamond and Platinum Buckle:
The Gucci belt below has a buckle recreated by Stuart Hughes in platinum and diamonds and there are only 3 available.



The price? a whopping $168,709.00 USD

The Dolce and Gabbana belt shown below is also limited to 3 and has 53 indivually set diamonds of VVS1 quality totalling a carat weight of 26.5.


The price on the above D&G belt is $91,879.00 USD.

Python Skin Blackberry


The python skin blackberry has lots of VS1 diamonds on the front at the bottom as well as on the back and will run you $9,658.54 USD

If you've got that kind of coin (and God bless you, if you do) start shopping here.

Design That Speaks Volumes. Tiny Speakers With Huge Sound.

I get many requests for paid reviews and posts and turn them all down to maintain the integrity of the blog. Sometimes I find nice little packages for me in the mail, clearly from someone hoping to be added to the hip list. More often than not, the products aren't up to snuff.

But these warranted a mention. The line of speakers from Singapore Based XM-I are not only wonderfully designed (The x-mini even received the prestigious 2008 Red Dot Design Award) but they really work, and are priced right.

They've also received rave reviews from those in the know, so you can be assured from audiophiles far more respected than myself.




Check these out.

The Original X-mini:




The X-mini is the World's first pocketsize speaker with a built-in bass support and rechargeable battery. It strikes the perfect balance of pocketsize portability with uncompromising sound quality.

Pioneering a patented technology which enables an extendable vacuum to mimic the resonance of a sub-woofer, the X-mini is also equipped with high-fidelity speakers to ensure smooth delivery of the mid-highs. The in-built rechargeable batteries would also translate to zero cost on disposable batteries and increased daily convenience.

The X-mini II:



The X-mini™ II introduces a larger 40mm driver to project richer and fuller sounds resulting in superior end-user experience from its innovative capsule design. Not only does the new design deliver unsurpassed audio quality, it now performs even longer. Three times the capacity of its predecessor, the new X-mini™ II comes with a new built-in high capacity rechargeable battery capable of sustained output for 11 hours of nonstop audio pleasure.

A most distinctive feature is the all new system that enables you to connect one X-mini™ II to another, capable of forming an almost endless “daisy chain” of self-powered, bass-enhanced portable speaker system.



Finally to eliminate cumbersome audio cables dangling from the speaker, the connecting audio cable can be tucked neatly into the base for a cleaner and sleeker look.




The X-Mini Max (capsule version):



The X-mini Max (Second generation):



Thanks to Alexander Yap for the red X-mini Max II photos


•Pocketsize Portability
Small enough to carry around. Connected at the bottom by two magnetic base for hassle free storage and portability on a daily basis.

•Bass Xpansion System
Pioneering a patented technology, an expandable vacuum which mimics the resonance of a subwoofer

•In-Built Rechargeable Batteries
The in-built rechargeable batteries will translate to zero cost on disposable batteries and increased daily convenience

And keep an eye out for their latest edition, The X-mini Happy:



all images courtesy of X-mini and XM-I.




Shop for all the cool X-mini speakers here.


above: IM-X CEO Ryan Lee, photo courtesy of BusinessWeek

CEO Ryan Lee's speakers have made him one of Asia's Best Young Enterpreneurs, see the BusinessWeek article here.

If you are into loudspeakers, don't miss this post all about some of the most unusually designed speakers on the market:


Speaker Manufacturers Turn Up The Volume On Design