In recent years both the continent's leading technology conferences, LeWeb in Paris and Digital, Life, Design in Munich, have become networking fests every bit as animated as their American equivalents.

ECONOMIST: Europe's tech entrepreneurs

"Digital Storm is known for building dream PCs with leading-edge technology, uncompromising quality, and aggressive styling, " said Ruben Mookerjee, VP and General Manager of the Components Business Unit at Corsair.

ENGADGET: Digital Storm launches Marauder series of desktop PCs for gamers on a budget

Component shortages caused by the 2011 Thailand floods kept shipments of HDDs to be less than the market wanted through the first half of 2012, leading to higher HDD prices and also much greater gross margins to the HDD companies (Western Digital, Seagate Technology and Toshiba).

FORBES: Have Hard Disk Drives Peaked?