Dell XPS 700 reviewed and ripped apart

It's not often that you read a review of a computer with a line like "You could kill someone with this thing," but the folks at bit-tech.net got to write that gem in their look at Dell's new gaming-oriented XPS 700, referring to the deadly-looking 3-millimeter thick piece of aluminum that forms the case's side panel. Unfortunately, they weren't as impressed with the system's performance as they were with its decapitating potential, finding it decidedly lacking when put up against their comparable custom-built rig -- although much of the blame seems to be pegged on the slow memory that Dell ships with the XPS. Still, they did find the system got most of the core elements right and delivered decent gaming performance at a reasonable price; given the cost of upgrades from Dell, though, they recommend going light on the memory and video card options when you order and swapping them out yourself when you get this sucker home.

[serotoninzero @ Sep 4th 2006 7:13PM]

That sounds pointless. If you're going to have to open it up to install things in it, wouldn't you just be better off building custom yourself? You get a sense of satisfaction out of that anyway.

[Observation @ Sep 4th 2006 7:20PM]

The inside of this machine is so poorly designed compared to the Mac Pro.

[fro0ty @ Sep 4th 2006 7:23PM]

serotoninzero: plus is wont break like a dell.

[Eli @ Sep 4th 2006 8:28PM]

Any machine that comes bundled with spyware is going to be slow...

[Tull @ Sep 4th 2006 8:47PM]

"The inside of this machine is so poorly designed compared to the Mac Pro."

lol

[black @ Sep 4th 2006 9:04PM]

"Any machine that comes bundled with spyware is going to be slow..."

@Eli

Is that what they've told you to think, or did you have a DELL with spyware on it? I don't find it out of the question, but a little hard to believe...I got a new dell last year and had no spyware on it at all.

[David @ Sep 4th 2006 9:33PM]

black, he was just being a jerk. pay him no attention.

[Davey @ Sep 4th 2006 9:40PM]

The front and back pieces are plastic? People actually want this thing?

[Duy @ Sep 4th 2006 9:53PM]

Dell computers have had a bad reputation with me. The biggest problem I have with them is that when you want to buy a computer, you're going to have to go through all these pick-and-choose options that usually turn out to be cheap and tacky or expensive and unneeded. The only thing I find intriguing is the big logo inside haha.

[_man1c_ @ Sep 4th 2006 10:35PM]

i love that site bit-tech.net. would love to become a modder. and oh lol DELL lol...

[Nogami @ Sep 4th 2006 10:54PM]

Reviewers using terms like "stupid" and "retarded" to describe components in systems they are reviewing lose my confidence as a reader fairly quickly.

They aren't signs of good, objective journalism.

[John Doe. @ Sep 5th 2006 12:32AM]

"Is that what they've told you to think, or did you have a DELL with spyware on it?"

Considering the shit that Dell loads in their default image. Yah there are some "utilities" that could def be considered spyware. This is why I tell anyone who gets a new Dell to nuke the OS from orbit with the restore CD....Or call up Dell to send you restore CD's since now a days they are too cheap to even do that. Just tell them you are trying to resgtore from the restore partition and it doesn't work and they will send them out.

Again. Nuke it from orbit..its the only way to be sure.

[John Doe. @ Sep 5th 2006 12:34AM]

"They aren't signs of good, objective journalism."

Depends on who you are talking to. A fanboi wouldn't consider it objective since it strikes at the heart of their borderline fetish.
But anyone who isn't a fanboi will treat it as stressing the point that its stupid.

[-D @ Sep 5th 2006 6:56AM]

serotoninzero and company, if you were not aware there is a build-it-yourself option for the XPS700 that comes with nothing but the pws, case, mb, and proc. you can put in the rest.


John Doe: I also belive Dell has a image for thier XPS line that doesnt include any of that "shit" as you put it. Also, from what I heard the reason why they don't ship those cd's at point of sale (you can request it when you purchase the system) is that they had some insane percentage of people that when they called in for tech support they had lost (read "thrown out") thier OS cd. Why ship something that is just going to be thrown out?

[javaflash @ Sep 5th 2006 7:12AM]

If you think Dell is bad, try Toshiba tablet - their system slapped me with buyer remorse the first time it boots up, thanks mostly to preloaded craps.

[catfish @ Sep 5th 2006 8:16AM]

Since when is good, objective journalism any fun to read?

[glacia00 @ Sep 5th 2006 2:00PM]

Will Harris has never made it a secret he is a Mac fanboy. Fanboy is not my oppinion of him, he refers to himself that way.

Although I have to say he at least admits his bias is actually more fair than probably 90% of the tech media. And he does take the ocassional swipe at Apple products also. His conclusions about the XPS700 weren't actually that bad.

"Dell has done what many thought would be beyond it - created a decent gaming system that hardcore enthusiasts would be happy to have on their desk. The engineers have nailed the industrial design and the core internal design, but the guys haven't quite managed to get the components and the pricing right. But for all our ragging on the component specifications, Dell has really got the core of this system spot on, and for that it earns our Recommended award."

[ex @ Sep 5th 2006 3:54PM]

-D "John Doe: I also belive Dell has a image for thier XPS line that doesnt include any of that "shit" as you put it"

that's not true, the image my XPS had upon bootup was so slow due to all that crap they preload. It took me 30 minutes (25 of waiting for everything to load) to start planning a fresh build for my pc. Today- my machine runs solid. Dell or not- it's how YOU build and maintain your machine that makes all the difference.
P.S.- my other solid machine is a mac mini. those machines just work right out of the box!

[glacia00 @ Sep 6th 2006 11:29AM]

WILFRED

Could you go 'deals' your fly by night, black market, trash elsewhere?

[I Jones @ Sep 14th 2006 7:41AM]

The XPS 700 needs some warnings on the tin...

There are issues with BIOS of this system - the "VT" and "EMT64" features of the Core2Duo processor have been disabled in the BIOS by Dell, and the machine futhermore is unable to use 800mhz DDR memory.

PS: In case you're wondering, VT support is needed by Windows Vista and Vmware, and EMT64 lets you run a 64 bit operating system.