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Light Harmonic (maker of the starship-esque Da Vinci digtal-to-analog converter (DAC)) goes for something smaller and cheaper with the Geek, a portable DAC the size of a USB thumb drive.

The Geek promises to give PC audio "more detail, greater depth, stronger bass and dynamics” by replacing built-in soundcards. It plugs into USB ports, drives 2 pairs of headphones or speakers, and supports high-resolution audio formats up to and including 384kHz PCM files.

Light Harmonic also claims the Geek is the first portable DAC able to process DSD and double-DSD files.

Gamers unable to decide between play and getting some ever-so-healthy exercise might not need to choose any more-- with the Virtuix Omni one can control games by simply running on the spot!

Designed primarily for use with the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset (even if it still works with "any [PC] game or app that uses keyboard input"), the Omni is a bit of a beast. It is 1.2m tall, weighs 50kg and allows for 360-degree movement complete with walking, running, jumping and crouching through special motion-tracking shoes.

The package also includes a harness, no doubt for safety reasons. After all, the last thing one wants while running and gunning is to trip over!

Despite costing it $900 million in "inventory adjustment" charges Microsoft will not give the tablet dream up-- Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang tells CNET the company is already "working really hard" on the 2nd Surface generation.

Nvidia hardware powers both versions of the underselling Microsoft tablet. According to the latest Microsoft SEC filings Surface revenues for the fiscal year ending June 2013 total $853 million, while a March 2013 Bloomberg report says sales total to 1 million ARM-based Surface RTs and around 400000 Surface Pros.

However Jen-Hsun Huang has high hopes for the next Surface-- because it will ship with Outlook at launch, something the 1st Surface lacked.

"It is the killer app for Windows," the Nvidia CEO tells CNET. "Now we're going to bring it with the 2nd-generation Surface. We're working really hard on it, and we hope that it's going to be a big success."

Even as PC shipments go through further decline-related woes, one segment remains fairly strong-- according to Jon Peddie Research PC gaming hardware sales are to grow with a CAGR of 3% over the 2012-2016 period on a global basis.

According to the analyst global PC gaming hardware sales will grow from $18.4 billion in 2012 to $20.8bn by 2016.

How so? Gamers, just like motorcycle, 4X4 and sports car enthusiasts, are willing to buy the best (and most expensive) hardware to get their speed and power fix. After all, tablets and cloud computing devices do not slice it when it comes to the latest and most demanding titles!

"Not only is gaming becoming an even more important purchasing influence of PC sales due to the offloading of more basic functionality to smart devices, but we are forecasting growth in the most expensive discrete graphics products," JPR remarks. "We are also impressed with the embedded graphics offerings this generation and going forward."