Imagine your 1982 Commodore 64 on steroids. Well, you'd need an army of these to take on the Commodore 64 Extreme model, which has just been unleashed - and even then we're not sure the old guys could win.

Produced by Commodore USA, the same chaps who last year brought us the Commodore PC64, the C64-EX is an absolute monster of a machine with a processing engine around 8,000 times more powerful than the original.

That's because it's rocking a 2nd generation Sandy Bridge 2.2GHz 64-bit Intel core i7 (Quad Core/Eight Threads 7-2720QM) processor - which can be clocked to 3.3GHz with Intel's Turbo Boost tech.

There's also 8GB of RAM, a 2TB HDD, 2 USB 3.0 ports (and 5 old-school USB 2.0 ones), SPDIF, HDMI, DVI and VGA ports and Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. Sadly, there's no Blu-ray but there is a RW DVD drive.

The machine runs Linux Mint 11 (although it's more than capable of some Windows action should you choose) and also offers a retro Commodore OS skin as well.

Barry Altman, president and CEO of Commodore USA said: "The Extreme is fast, fun and well suited for computational intensive applications from CAD, video editing, software compilation and sound processing.

"The C64x Extreme is also fantastic for web surfing, social media and office automation. The Intel HD Graphics 3000 GPU resides on the same die as the 32 NM CPU, making the C64x Extreme super fast for family and retro gaming, and is suitable for all but the most demanding 3D games."

Available to pre-order now the Commodore 64 Extreme costs $1,499.