Gearbox #36

Sunbeam Meteor light
Supplier: PC Case Gear
Website: www.pccasegear.com.au
Phone: (03) 9568 0932
Price: $29.95

This light-blaring stick-o-joy is made from 12 ultra bright LED lights set in an array. Available in either red or blue, these blinding sticks output a great vivid display of colour. There are eight different display settings, from a static all on to a lustrous display of flashing lights - of which can either cycle continuously through all of these, or be manually changed to stay on a particular setting using the bay control panel.

Mini cold cathode kit
Supplier: PC Range
Website: www.pcrange.com.au
Phone: (08) 8322 9544
Price: $14

To some people's disgust, small bits are the craze these days - it seems smaller has now turned sexier. Crazy. This little 10cm cold cathode looks small in packaging, but has a huge heart - spurting out a decent level of bright light (capable of up to 18,000 cd/m2). If you haven't already filled every inch of your case with LED lights, this is a cute little light for any left over nooks and crannies you may have. Perfect for small form factor cases.

Thermaltake XaserBag
Supplier: Mittoni
Website: www.mittoni.com.au
Phone: (03) 9560 6100
Price: $52 (large - 52 x 20.5 x 57cm); $49 (small - 44 x 18 x 46cm)

When travelling to and fro between LAN parties, the worst thing of all is lugging around the awkward bulky case, if you have one. The closest thing to having a million dollar sidekick carry-my-stuff robot is this slick case harness. Carry around not only your machine, but you can fill the side pouch with keyboards and caffeinated drinks. This doesn't make the job lighter, but looks so sexy, in a computery kind of way. Capable of carrying 30kg, this is respect in a bag.

Bitspower strobing crystal lighting fan
Supplier: PC Range
Website: www.pcrange.com.au
Phone: (08) 8322 9544
Price: $14

This quiet, single-ball-sleeved fan, as you can see has lights - flashing bright blue/green/red lights to be exact (the mere definition of innovation is screaming in pain). This is better than Morse code - no one will ever understand anything it emits, with the lights flashing at a constant rate. However, a dial can adjust the speed from slow flashes to trance inducing - causing so much damage even epileptic fits look down in shame. Fantastic.

Console controller converters
Supplier: Anyware
Website: www.anyware.com.au
Phone: (07) 3856 3999
Price: $45 (Xbox-PC); $45 (PS2-PC); $40 (PS2-Xbox)

Hacking guides for adapting console controllers for cross breeding have been floating around for a while now - adapters have finally hit retail. These perform insanely and just as you'd expect on a console. However, we had game compatibility problems with the Xbox-PC version, not supporting nearly as many as the PS2-PC. Of course, all rumblings have been preserved, providing great, configurable feedback - all powered via wonderful USB. Considering the massive original Xbox controllers, the PS2-Xbox converter also works a huge treat (providing a memory slot also). These are natty, especially if you have a PS2, but perhaps a little pricey.

Philips Gaming Headphone (HG100)
Supplier: Crest Electronics
Website: www.crest.com.au
Phone: (07) 3265 0900
Price: $299.95

These fellas are pretty expensive, agreed, but they're so good. Such beautiful sound is rarely heard on headphones, or should we say felt? You see, bar the amazing clarity, the key feature of these head pulsators are the two vibrators on the back. These sit at the back of your head and produce an effect not dissimilar to that of a beefy sub woofer, causing your brain to melt and flood your now-empty eye sockets. Surprisingly, powered by a AA battery, it survived an entire month of heavy use - without losing any oomph. The microphone is also of great quality, sucking in nothing but clean sound. Equipped with separate volume and vibration frequency dials, these are addictive headphones.

DVD2Go MPB680 handheld
Supplier: SATO
Website: www.satotech.com.au
Phone: (03) 9899 6333
Price: $150

With DVD burners hitting the market like swarms of flies, it's about time VHS kicked its final bucket. Practically any device that has S-Video