There are two main types of road warriors in this world. First, there are the ones who value portability over all else. These users are more concerned with battery life and ease of transportation than they are with raw performance, and it's because of them that netbooks -- the very epitome of portability -- have become such a popular market segment. At the other end of the spectrum sit the users who crave as much performance as they can get, and they're willing to trade battery life and lightweight designs to get it. At the extreme end, we call these mobile PCs 'desktop replacements,' which is exactly what they are.

Boutique system builder AVADirect deals with PCs of all shapes and sizes, and the one we're looking at today -- the Clevo X8100 -- is every bit a desktop replacement rig, and then some...