Dell says XPS 700 will NOT ship overclocked

We can't blame TG Daily for reporting that the Core 2 Extreme-powered version of Dell's XPS 700 gaming desktop will ship with a factory overclocked processor; after all, the placard in front of that demo machine at the World Series of Video Games did indeed mention an overclocked Conroe, with the promise that "system specs like this [will be] available within the next 30 days at [Dell's website]." After Cnet received a review unit of the new configuration that had not been overclocked, however, they called up Dell to set the record straight once and for all. According to company spokesperson Liem Nguyen, although "Dell has unlocked the BIOS so that customers can overclock the processor themselves...at this time Dell is not factory overclocking the system." So there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth: Dell's not actually doing the dirty work here, but it is giving customers the opportunity to tweak and possibly fry their machines themselves.

[Bob @ Jul 17th 2006 10:03AM]

xps stands for = Xtra Plastic Shit

[noobs @ Jul 17th 2006 10:11AM]

so basically this doesn't make any sense. If someone wanted to overclock they wouldn't be buying a shitty XPS anyways. What cooling does it come with? I bet its shitty. Knowing Dell probably use budget heatsinks with budget memory, a combination not suitable for overclocking.

[AJ @ Jul 17th 2006 10:12AM]

Give them some credit Bob, I'm not a big fan of Dell, but I don't hate them blindly. They're finally giving the customer some decent upgrade capabilities.
Besides, the new case is made of thicker aluminum (better heat dissipation).

[Guruboy @ Jul 17th 2006 10:33AM]

Oh my god you people are so stupid. Remember when Engadget had the article about the 700 a few days ago and they mentioned a $10,000 price tag and everyone went nuts? Try $4000 you morons. This computer is incredible, at an incredible price. Anyone that makes blind comments about Dell or thoughtless acronyms with their products obviously has no idea what they're talking about. If you're going to overclock any computer, you'd BETTER be willing to spend money on extra cooling. Having not been lazy like people like "noob" (how fitting) and actually done the research, I found this comes with two 120x38mm fans, along with a tower six heat pipe copper-based heatsink with aluminum fans (aka more than one). Generally that cooling package would be sufficient for some overclocking, but not with this beast. In any case, why the HELL would you overclock a Core 2 Duo?!?! What a bad idea! You just bought the best processor on the desktop market, better than any AMD, and you're going to overclock!?!? What are you thinking?!?!

[bill @ Jul 17th 2006 10:45AM]

I'm fairly certain that with that cooling, and airflow, you could easily overclock. Is there any information on what thermal grease they use? (Hopefully they aren't using the same tech's as Apple does to apply it, then it wouldn't really matter whether they were using Arctic Silver or Applesauce.. zingg).

[Craig @ Jul 17th 2006 10:50AM]

I've gotta admit no matter how much I despise Dell this XPS 700 is one awesome computer, just look at it. That is such a cool case, not their usual black plastic.

[AV @ Jul 17th 2006 10:51AM]

Guruboy

Someone who makes sense for once while making comments on engadget.

My mind boggles at the concept.

[Tull @ Jul 17th 2006 11:59AM]

@ Guruboy

It's not just about having the fastest processor out there, but being able to say that you had something in doing that. You and all your buddies can all get the same stock processor and all have it run at stock speeds but sooner or later I'm definitely going to overclock it to say mine is better then yours. If I bought this dell pos(i say build don't buy), first thing I would do is test it's limitations and how far I can push it. More is always better, after all. ;D

[Bob @ Jul 17th 2006 12:04PM]

"Guruboy

Someone who makes sense for once while making comments on engadget.

My mind boggles at the concept"

QFT

[Rynth @ Jul 17th 2006 12:12PM]

Guruboy: "You just bought the best processor on the desktop market, better than any AMD, and you're going to overclock!?!? What are you thinking?!?!"

Wrong!! do some research first fool, this processor isnt a touch on an 4800+ X2, or the FX60 X2, which is even faster, Lets face it, would you even like to buy an intel chip in the first place, being stupidly over priced to start with, and then remembering that there still only 32-bit....

Dell kit is good, just the XPS is just a bit Xpensive.. sorry, couldnt help it... and when you look at what you could build for the similar money, there not a patch.

[Will B @ Jul 17th 2006 12:36PM]

@ guruboy

do yourself and the web community a favor... i was the same way as you for a while, then I joined an overlclocking msg board to get some insight, and 2 weeks later i built my first pc, and 5 weeks later i had tweaked it into one of the best $1000 pc's i've ever seen on the net...

overclocking may seem like a waste of time and money to you, but trust me, it is INCREDIBLY satisfying to see all your researching, testing, benchmarking, and tweaking turn a decent system into something that can perform at maximum potential...

[Dave @ Jul 17th 2006 12:38PM]

@Rynth
Core 2 Duo's are 64 bit. :-) But I still prefer AMD's even though Intel's new lineup does seem to do some badly needed catchup

[Benson Leung @ Jul 17th 2006 1:04PM]

Rynth. The chip in this Dell system is a Core 2 Extreme, running at 2.93 Ghz. Compared to the FX-60, or more fair, the FX-62, the Extreme is more like 20+% faster than the FX...

Even the slower clocked E6700 beat the FX-62 by a consistent 10%, and the E6700 is only in the $500 range. , compared to the $800 or $1000 for the FX-62.

AMD has good stuff, and I don't doubt that they can bounce back in the next year or so, but you AMD Fanboys need to accept reality. AMD's fastest chips right now for $1000 get beaten by Intel's middle of the road $500 chip... badly.

[glacia00 @ Jul 17th 2006 1:45PM]

Ok, I'll be the first to actually comment on the post. When I first heard the rumor that Dell would ship a model that was overclocked I called BS on it.

First off they're not going to void the warranty on the processor for you. I do give them credit for recognizing that customers want to do it and making it a bit easier. Dell machines have never been overclocking friendly.

But who really thought that they were going to ship an overclocked machine? The majority of people buying it wouldn't know overclocking from underwear.

[Citizen Insane @ Jul 17th 2006 1:52PM]

Um...why the hell wouldn't you overclock a Conroe. They are easily (and repeatably) overclockable to over 3.8Ghz on AIR (x6800). 4+ on H20 and they've already hit 5.2 on LN2. You guy really need to do some research before you post a bunch of crap all over the net. Conroes on LN2 are hitting sub 10sec 1M SuperPi marks. Not only do they overclock easily, they are BLAZINGLY fast too. If you want to know more, check out the forums @ Extremeoverclocking.com

[Citizen Insane @ Jul 17th 2006 2:05PM]

Here is a link explaining how the E6600 Conroe rocks the FX-62 @ stock speed...and then is overclocked from 2.4Ghz to 4Ghz. I agree, overclocking conroe is such a stupid idea /sarcasm

http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2795&p=18

[Guruboy @ Jul 17th 2006 2:13PM]

Why assume that I've never overclocked before? Come on people, I'm not saying never overclock a Core 2 Duo, they handle it better than most Intels out there. What I'm saying is, it's not necessary right off the bat. I don't know a whole lot of people who actually plan to buy this processor, the extreme is a grand! You just won't see such a huge performence gain, seeing as though this thing can render the sort of scenes I take 3 minutes to render in 10 seconds.

Rynth, I point you in these directions:
http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/07/14/core_2_duo_benchmark_results/

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/07/14/core2_duo_knocks_out_athlon_64/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/14/AR2006071400115.html?nav=rss_technology/personaltech

Who is the fool?

[Tikiman @ Jul 17th 2006 5:36PM]

You guys should all get a life. Who cares at what speed the computer runs?? Maybe only your virtual girlfriends which would suffer from slow loading times. Try running your legs for a while, maybe you'd see that speed is measured in mph not Ghz. Probably then you would need some real cooling capacity. I feel sorry for you guys. Why the hell is this on gmail's quick access toolbar?? This link sucks.

Thank you.

[hobgoblin @ Jul 17th 2006 6:36PM]

overclocking is basicly the computer geek's answer to the car geek's that mod the engine for more horsepower in various ways.

like tull states, its about getting your hands "dirty".
its about being able to say that this is your work.

anyone can fork over the money for a sports car. not everyone can buy a old rusty thing and turn it into a hot rod ;) (or in theory they can, if they are willing to do some learning and some work)

[Guruboy @ Jul 17th 2006 8:06PM]

Hobgoblin usually I greatly dislike analogies with tech subjects and real-life, but that one is actually pretty good. Of course, it's MUCH easier to overclock than it is to make an old car into a hot rod, basiclly as easy as clicking a button.

[Rynth @ Jul 20th 2006 5:17AM]

Perchance.... Im not sure then , they sure as hell dont feel faster, my pal has a pretty same system as me (one of these XPs's just with a different mobo nd SLI setup and 2 gig of ram, whilst im running a 4800+ X2 with an crossfire setup , thats 2 1900XT's with 2 gig of ram and mine outperforms it on pretty much everything - 3DSmax, oblivion, benchmarks etc) might just be personal experience.

[bu @ Jul 28th 2006 6:41PM]

I have an AMDx2 system that I built, and Im selling it and ordering this beast. Ill be glad to out perform the crap out of any of you uneducated smack talkers. And this system has THE best air flow on the market. One huge fan blows right through the heat sink and one strait through the video cards. Im planning on over-clocking my cpu and SLI video cards. Have fun eating my dust. :)