Since our initial report from the Channel Insider 2009 Market Pulse Survey went live Sunday evening, tens of thousands of people have scanned the list and analysis of the top 10 (there are actually 12 because of a tie) companies that solution providers told us would either go out of business or be acquired in 2009.

The mix of components is a little odd, however. Since Dell has chosen to go with all Black Edition CPUs, you can find it equipped with the Phenom II X4 940, Phenom X4 9850+, Phenom X3 8750+, or Athlon 64 X2 5600+. You won't be able to get one with a Phenom II X4 920, however.

Kevin whipped up a back-of-the-envelope system design for a box with a AMD Phenom 9950 (3.2 GHz x4), 4 GB of DDR2 RAM, 500 GB SATA disk, NVidia 9800 with 1 GB video RAM, 400 watt power supply, a Sony DVD-RW with Lightscribe support, and a Microsoft keyboard with fingerprint reader and wireless mouse. Total cost: $1,190, but for me special today, $1,100.

Yeah, a 3.2GHz Phenom. Nice non released product there. And 400 watts I can deal with if there was a 400 watt supply that didn't suck. Either the Antec Earthwatts 430 or Trio Power 430 would do fine. I can't explain the 9800GT 1GB for a workstation. Is this old guy gaming? And why $1,200 for $500 worth of parts? Oh well, it is a slow news day.

In addition to its performance improvements,, the HP xw9400 ushers in a host of environmental benefits. The system is registered as an Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold product, the highest rating available. All HP workstations are more than 90 percent recyclable by weight and incorporate a tool-less chassis design for quick and easy upgrades by hand. Each workstation includes an 80 PLUS power supply, which is more efficient than a standard power supply, reducing both overall energy usage and the amount of waste heat released into the environment.

AMD's "Maui" home theater PC platform consists of a combination of AMD hardware and software. Systems built around the platform feature an energy efficient Phenom or Athlon processor, ATI Radeon graphics, ATI TV tuners, and AMD LIVE! software elements. The current foundation of the platform is MSI's somewhat unique Media Live DIVA 5.1 motherboard, which is based on the AMD 780M chipset, and includes a specialized Intersil D2 Ausio DAE-3 audio chip with an accompanying 5.1 channel amplifier, but a 3.1 / 7.1 pre-amplifier card is also an option.