Remember the Sprout, the "immersive computer" from HP? Dell presents a similar concept at Dell World 2014-- a "Smart Desk" PC replacing the regular keyboard and mouse combo with a horizontal touchscreen.

Designed for professionals such as "digital artists, engineers, architects, and scientific analysts operating high-performance professional applications," the Smart Desk uses input from 10+ fingers, stylus and "a next generation of tools," and allows the clustering of multiple desks around specific projects with easy content sharing and stacking.

"[T]he Dell smart desk will change creative, design, and analysis workflows for the better while introducing a new, immersive way for professionals to interact with those demanding workflows," the company claims.

S. Korean PC component vendor Zalman launches the Z11 Neo-- an  all-black ATX mid-tower chassis fitting up to 8 system fans "for maximum airflow," with built-in dust filters to help reduce dust entry.

Construction is in sheet metal and plastic, with an acrylic side window for the showing off of components, blue LED highlights and a brushed aluminium front panel. A dedicated top mount section allows the installation of dual radiator solutions for optional liquid cooling, and the motherboard tray has a cut-out for easy under-board access.

It carries up to six 3.5-inch and two 2.5-inch storage devices, and a single 5.25-inch drive bay is accessible via "one touch" sliding ODD door in the front. Graphics card compatibility can be extended from 270mm to 400mm via removal of the optional HDD cages. PCI slot capacity is 7, and customers can install CPU coolers as tall as 175mm and PSUs up to 250mm in length.

The PC-T80 is an update on Lian-Li's PC-T60 DIY test bench, with brushed aluminium construction and the addition of native radiator support and a more modular design.

It measures 440 x 435 x 335mm and is separated into 3 zones, allowing for easy configuration and hardware updates. A dual-functioning bracket allows the installation of radiators (up to 360mm) or three 3.5/2.5-inch HDDs. One can easily exchange the locations of the HDD cage and power supply in the lower zone, where an additional HDD cage can also be installed in the middle position.

IDC reports EMEA PC shipments total 23.7 million units with 10.4% growth during Q3 2014-- a "clear return to growth" following a difficult 2013, with shipments driven by the mature W. European markets.

Back-to-school shipments, Christmas season preparation and attractively priced Windows 8.1+ Bing notebooks are driving portable PC demand, as the segment posts 13.5% Y-o-Y growth. Desktop PCs also show growth (5.2%).

W. European shipments are up by 22.7% Y-o-Y, while CEE remains impacted by an unstable political and economical situation, leading to declines of -9% Y-o-Y and MEA shows positive 2% Y-o-Y growth-- all signs of a market rebound and "strong" renewals on both consumer and enterprise markets, even if IDC hesitates to call this a recovery due to volumes not being as high as previous strong years.