iBuyPower on Wednesday announced the launch of a new line of gaming and entertainment PCs that will use Intel's upcoming Core i7 processor, which the chipmaker is touting as its fastest CPU yet. The three Paladin F-series PCs will also sport a Blu-ray drive, 7.1-channel surround sound support and include a Logitech gaming keyboard and mouse. The range-topping F970 PC will use Intel's 3.2GHz Core i7 965 Extreme Edition, which is claimed as the most powerful personal CPU to date. It will also include 12GB of DDR3 RAM, ATI's HD 4870X2 graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 video memory and a dual-radiator liquid cooling system.

All three models will use Cooler Master's HAF cases, or users can specify their own. The lower-end models, the Paladin F860-a and F860-n, will use the Intel Core i7 940 CPUs good for 2.93GHz. All three new Paladin F-Series PCs from iBuyPower will ship with Windows Vista.

The new Intel processors are a return to Hyperthreading and will take advantage of multithreading technology that is being used in new PC games for 3D rendering, and feature an integrated memory controller that improves latency over the previous, separate design. There will also be a turbo mode integrated into the chips for automatic overclocking when one or more cores are unused.

iBuyPower has not revealed specific release dates or pricing information for the Paladin F-Series gaming PCs, though reports have the lower end models start at nearly $2,500, including a 1TB HDD, 6GB of RAM, and a 20.1-inch Sceptre LCD.