Dell unleashes the pricey XPS 730 and 730 H2C gaming rigs

Apparently Dell is busting out the big, expensive guns with its new gaming rig, the XPS 730 and 730 H2C. The previously outed system is quite serious, utilizing NVIDIA's nForce 790i Ultra SLI chipset, a wide variety of Intel CPUs (ranging from the Core 2 Duo up to the Core 2 Duo Extreme), support for ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (CrossFireX) or NVIDIA GeForce 8800GT (SLI) graphics chipsets, up to 8GB of RAM, and the ability to install up to four hard drives in various configurations. The real kicker, however, is the H2C cooling system, which has been "enhanced," so this won't blow up when you're playing Crysis (which runs smoothly at 1920 x 1200 resolution, we're told). HotHardware has a nice unboxing of the beast, and PC Magazine has given a $6,629 configuration a full review, and they didn't come to the sweetest conclusion ever. The XPS 730 and XPS 730 H2C are available now from Dell, starting at $3,999 and $4,999, respectively.

Read - Dell XPS 730 H2C: Four-Barreled Gaming Horsepower
Read - Dell XPS 730 H2C Unboxing and Preview
Read - Review of the Dell XPS 730 H2C

[Alan Gilpatric @ May 1st 2008 9:30AM]

I could built a custom PC that beat the hell out of this in a lower price.

[Jon @ May 1st 2008 9:43AM]

Of course you can .. In fact every time dell releases anything there are many many post saying "i can build this for so cheap" .. So what ? Sometimes people want it built for them

So next you an Fix my grammar mistakes , that would be original as well !

[Jon @ May 1st 2008 9:43AM]

Oh and Tell everyone how terrible Vista is ..

[Pochi @ May 1st 2008 9:58AM]

Building a PC is more trouble than it is worth. I built my last 3 PCs, but the latest one I bought from Dell (a Vostro) and then upgraded myself (HDD, RAM, and graphics card).

Upgrading a solidly built Dell was a million times easier and more worthwhile. It was absolutely no hassle at all, the case is perfectly suited to the motherboard and internal components, and truthfully it just feels a hell of a lot nicer. Just picking the right PSU for a whitebox these days is a headache.

I wish I had been doing this all along. Building a PC might be fun, but it's not what it used to be. Prices have fallen and buying from a major vendor is the better choice.

[me @ May 1st 2008 10:35AM]

ok i do build computer

and yes u right u should use anti static wrist band and so forth

i have never actually used them in fact the main computer my kids use doesn't have the side panel on it and hasn't for over a month cuz i been adding parts here there to it and used ever day no problems

as for easier to upgrade a dell well that a yes and no if your just upgrading ram or putting video card then yes any pc would be easy

but some parts on dell have dell hooks up only . try swamping your cpu cooler for new 1 u will see what mean that make hard up date the cpu with a new as the old cooler mite not be good enough for new cpu and there r a other few minor thing

but that doesn't make dell a bad computer and most people wont ever upgrade any how the only good reason to build your
own is have less hardware compatibilities problem that u all love to bitch about in vista and no pre installed oem bull crap software and driver that r really most of vista problem bad oem software and shit oem drivers build your self no problems well a least any computer i built for my self or any else

[Justin @ May 1st 2008 10:52AM]

Alan, lol.

It's funny how you see those kinds of comments on every mac post, but it is actually much more relevant here.

Man, PCs are so expensive......... I could configure a Mac Pro that would blow this thing out of the water. And, yes, it can play Crysis :)

[Zeus.:God @ May 2nd 2008 6:22PM]

Clak, you're so full of shit...

Your motherboard is not going to conk out that easily. I hate everyone who tries to get everyone worried and turned off to the idea of building a computer. It's not complicated, and you can have it assembled and running in an hour or two your first time (first computer, first assembly, whatever), and you don't have to be all that knowledgeable. Anti-static mats and wrist straps are useful, but aren't as effective as grabbing the inside of your computer's case for roughly 5 seconds. All you have to do is that any time you walk around or make any significant movements before touching any of the circuit boards.

There is no "hype" with PC building; only fact. You can build things far cheaper than these companies, with better components and piece of mind. You know the quality of your assembly, and there is no middle man.

Even with the retail cost of Windows, you're still spending hundreds to thousands less than the commercial PC.

[initialxy @ May 1st 2008 9:35AM]

starting at $4999? i'm not rich enough...

[kicks @ May 1st 2008 9:46AM]

dang... it puts my pentium III crysis player into shame....
but i'll be conforted by the fact that it is a heck of a pricy crysis player.... surely your not gonna buy that to play crysis... are you??

[kicks @ May 1st 2008 9:49AM]

p.s. i'm using a dell in school right now... why can't the school buy something like this for us to use? come on, its only 6,600...

[Pochi @ May 1st 2008 10:00AM]

You did mean your Pentium III "7 frames per second" Crysis player, right?

[Zeus.:God @ May 2nd 2008 6:24PM]

You mean your "I can't even load up the Crysis splash screen without crashing" Pentium III, right?

[Hero @ May 1st 2008 9:53AM]

Or you could just buy an pc and not have to pay the apple tax associated with their products. With the extra money you might even be able to buy a better spec computer.

[Flashpoint @ May 1st 2008 9:53AM]

Oh please... it would take so much money to put together a Mac able to play Crysis that it would make even the best XPS look cheap.

[adealg @ May 1st 2008 10:00AM]

Response to 'clak'
I am new to engadget, still awkward with "-+!" buttons thing and I figured how to response... However I couldn't since I clicked "!" by mistake... It was me Alan. So, I see your point about people who want buy a pc instead to building it. I could happen to be ignorant since I never have damaged many motherboards without using antistatic mats or anything like that. I have built many pcs and swapped motherboards. Now I am considering to buy antistatic mats or wrist straps because I am thinking "hey you never know!"

[bonedog73 @ May 1st 2008 10:43AM]

I can't see spending $4-$5000 grand on a fracking DELL!

Now if you need a solid business machine with a solid warranty go DELL.

But a 5grand DELL... with all that plasticy crap all over? No way..

XPS = Xtra Plastic Shit

[ChuChu @ May 1st 2008 11:03AM]

I know it's cool to hate on dell and all but did you look at the specs? That ain't no business class machine with extra plastic dorothy.

I would have no problem recommending that machine to a non-tech savvy friend who wanted a smoking gaming machine and wasn't afraid to drop some coin to get it.

[Invisiblemoose @ May 1st 2008 3:51PM]

If you were a real friend you'd put a machine together for him.

[ChuChu @ May 2nd 2008 12:46PM]

When you put a machine together for someone there is an implicit support agreement in place. They assume if something goes wrong with the machine they can call you. I don't know how valuable your time is but I am not interested in doing desktop support for people at this stage in my life.

[Randy @ May 1st 2008 10:45AM]

@Flashpoint,

I doubt that, I put a Mac pro config together for $3,327 (yes, 8 cores+ NV8800GT and w/o a monitor.) perfectly, capable of playing Crysys. this XPS starts at 3,999. I could've dropped a cpu and gone w/ a single Quad-core for 2,827.00)

And before you label me a Fanboi; I don't own any apple computer HW to date, but I'm thinking of taking the plunge.

Why do you hate apple?

[milton359 @ May 1st 2008 11:04AM]

Dell definately has a premium built in for some of those upgrades.

[daschupa @ May 1st 2008 11:26AM]

So $4000 gets you a cheap processor, two outdated 8800's (with no option of the new cards) and a lame case design and no monitor (you can't even add the 24 inch)? Are they just trying to shove people to Alienware and giving up on gaming?

[QQ @ May 1st 2008 12:50PM]

Dell Owns Alienware...

[daschupa @ May 1st 2008 6:43PM]

Exactly. As in, go to our subsidiary and come to us if you need a $500 Vista "capable" machine.

[ed @ May 1st 2008 11:45AM]

so it runs crysis, but can it run VISTA Home Basic?

[Shinigami @ May 1st 2008 11:55AM]

Lets see:
CPU - QX9650 OCed - $1450
Can be found in any PC shop
Memory - corsair 4x1 gb - $325 (2x$162)
HDD - 1tb hard drive - starting at $200
HDD raptor 2x160gb - $440 total (from Dell, you can actually get a 300gb raptor for $300, the new Raptor)
Video card - 3870x2 - $385 per card, $770 total
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Gamer - $95, no, its not FATALITY series.
Motherboard - 790i Ultra SLI - $350
Case - $300 ? Price is approximate.
PSU - 1000W (overkill possibly) $300 approx.

Actual price - $4270. Lets assume its $4629 with H2C cooling. Its still $2000 less than $6629 Dell asks.

From the review - "5 fps for Crysis" in 1920x1200 (native resolution for 24" and 27" monitors).
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2289590,00.asp
Paragraph 2.

There are people who will buy this PC and I hope they'll be happy with it. Just informing you there are cheaper and speedier options out there.

PS: links to shops have been removed because I can only add 3 urls. You can find all of these products in online shops for a similar price.

[Draaaainage! @ May 1st 2008 12:17PM]

You just quoted the price of the parts; you didn't include testing, assembly, support, handling (before shipping) R&D, marketing, administrative costs, et cetera et cetera et cetera.

Dell's not in it to make shoestring profits, so you can bet they aren't going to be charging the consumer for just the cost of the parts.

[Stone Culdesac @ May 1st 2008 12:10PM]

I bought a high end Dell XPS gaming machine for about 4800 about 5 years ago and it is still faster than most "normal" computers, with no problems as of yet and I probably won't upgrade it for a couple more years, unless I get back into gaming or something.

[Achilles @ May 1st 2008 1:33PM]

I have an older (maybe 2-3yrs old) XPS Gen 4 gaming PC and I really can't complain about it. It's still running well. The Nvidia Graphics card is becoming a pain the ass (CPU spikes) but that's a known issue and it started on my system 3-4 months ago. I'm still very happy with my system (with the exception of the Nvida card, I'll probably go a with a diff card next time). It's obviously not a top of the line system anymore (2-3 yrs old) but it's still streaking along very well for me. COD4 and BF2 have always run very well for me.

Any problems I've had with it, the Dell customer support has been very good to me (yes, I know they are in India but I went to college with many Indian students in Texas so understanding India's accents isn't a problem for me).

Would I pay 6k+ for a gaming system? Probably not. Not because it's a Dell but because I just wouldn't need such a huge system from any company, Alien, Dell or anyone else. Now, 3-4K? Yeah, I'd spend that for a nice system.

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 1:07PM]

how can people whine about the 'apple tax' on a thread about a $5,000 PC?

[Jim H @ May 1st 2008 2:15PM]

Well, according to the PC Mag article it looks like the games software can't really take advantage of the multiple GPUs and CPUs which is rather surprising given that they're supposed to have been waiting for the hardware to catch up with the software.

Wonder how loud this thing is though? I got a top-of-the-range workstation from Dell with dual quad core X5482s in it and that thing sounds like Concorde at close quarters. I think there's a hardware/firmware/driver fault in mine though. With the CPUs and the graphics cards in those things even with the water cooling they're going to be loud. Need to crank that surround sound system up to drown it out;).

[DrArkaneX @ May 1st 2008 2:22PM]

hahahah, don't even compare MacBook Pros to anything recent by Dell. it doesn't work. Apple sells you sub-standard hardware for a crazed out priced, and you really have to be a pretentious snob to own a Mac.

Friends don't let Friends buy a mac.

My friend bought a Mac and now I never talk to him. Ever since he bought that damn Mac, he's too good for me.. Screw Macs

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 2:44PM]

hey, you sound healthy and well adjusted.

[ChrisF @ May 1st 2008 2:26PM]

Honestly, the whole thing at Dell is

"I got a 730 H2C, What you got?"

"I got a 1510 Vostro"

"Aw man, you suck" (E-Peen goes flying around)

Basically, all these numbers are is just a good excuse to wave your E-Peen around, and if you say you have a 730, everyone in the world knows what kinda chipset you have so at least you got bragging rights for the next month until a new chipset comes out, then you're left int he dust. Building your own computer not only merits you the latest equipment, you also learn something in the process about how your computer works and also by how EASY it is to build one. Building a Computer on newegg.com to meet or exceed this $6000 behemoth would be very simple and cost about $4000.

Of course it's easier to buy this thing already built and when it messes up you have someone to complain to. I build my rig 2 years ago and i've had zero problems with it and had to complain to no one. Had one of my hard drives go out, but it was a Seagate so it was still under a 5 year warranty. Got a new drive in 2 days.

[Big Al @ May 1st 2008 3:22PM]

HEADLINE NEWS: Dell isn't trying to sell PC's to people who can build their own computers. Wow would have thought!

[ChuChu @ May 1st 2008 3:50PM]

I think we need a new voting button called "NOTFORYOU" so everytime someone posts about how they can make a better mp3 player out of a coconut and some string or a better machine than a dell using hand picked components we can just click "NOTFORYOU".

[matthew @ May 1st 2008 4:28PM]

because i don't HAVE to buy a 5K computer if i want to run windows

[phanbouy @ May 1st 2008 7:13PM]

oh yeah! that's right, i forgot the only machine that runs OS X is a maxed out Mac Pro. you're smarter than a hamster running from Richard Gere

[Bill @ May 4th 2008 2:08AM]

Yes, one can probably build a comparable gaming rig for less than what Dell is charging for this system. However, by the time one figures in one's building work, part and software research, support and testing - which any tech will usually charge $50+ an hour for - one will probably find Dell's prices very reasonable.

I used to build my own PC's as well. But this time around I bought a Dell simply because I wasn't interested in the hassle of putting it all together and supporting the thing. And, if something goes wrong with it I make a phone call to Dell and they have to deal with it - not me. That's worth the slight premium I paid for the system.

[Jason @ Jun 19th 2008 10:41AM]

Well this is not that bad of a Gaming Rig Now, because dell just lowerrd their prices on this bad boy.