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.

With Alienware having just added Core 2 Duo options to its Area-51 7500 desktop, you didn't really think that rival Voodoo would be far behind, did you? The boutique gaming rig manufacturer has just announced its OMEN i:121 Extreme tower, which crams a 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor into either a liquid- or air-cooled case designed to "operate at peak efficiency without draining excess power." Since video processing is even more important than CPU horsepower in a system like this, Voodoo is offering the new Omen with a number of graphics configurations, ranging from a single ATI Radeon X1900 or nVidia GeForce 7900GT setup all the way up to SLI or Crossfire dual-card powerhouses. You're also getting 2GB of RAM in the base configuration, along with a 7,200RPM 80GB hard drive and 16x dual-layer Pioneer DVD burner. As usual, pricing on these machines borders on the ridiculous, with SLI and Crossfire rigs starting at $4,400 and $6,000, respectively -- hey, no one said that being on the cutting edge of performance would come cheap.

[Via TrustedReviews]

Dell's giving that sweet Core 2 love to more than just the XPS 410 and XPS 700 desktops; even workstations are getting into the game. As part of the continuing onslaught of spec-bumped machines, the company announced that its Precision 390 tower is now available with four Core 2 Duo options (1.86GHz E6300, 2.13GHz E6400, 2.40GHz E6660, or 2.66GHz E6700) or even the blazing 2.93GHz Core 2 Extreme X6800, along with a seemingly-ancient 3.0GHz Pentium 4. The new rig can handle up to 8GB of DDR2 RAM, up to a 7,200RPM, 500GB hard drive, and comes with a number of graphics options from either nVIDIA (the Quadro series) or ATI (either a FireGL V7200 or V3400). If you act now, you can pick up a base configuration (which includes the E6300) for just $800, though going high-end will cost significantly more: a Core 2 Extreme--equipped setup more than doubles the price to $1,790.

[Thanks, Michael]

If there's anything better than killing two birds with one stone it's killing four of them, and thanks to a pair of early looks from Cnet, we're able to cram two product announcements and their corresponding reviews into one tidy little post. Even though they were just unveiled today, the tech mega-site was already able to take Dell's XPS 410 (pictured, left) and HP's Pavilion d4600y (pictured, right) Core 2 Duo-powered desktops out for a spin, and both machines come across as very capable performers. The two rigs share the same 2.4GHz E6600 CPU and 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM -- meaning that they throw down almost identical benchmark numbers, with the HP enjoying a slight but ultimately inconsequential edge -- but the Dell's nVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS graphics card with 512MB VRAM makes short work of the ATI Radeon X1600XT-sporting Pavilion in the all-important gaming department. Dual 320GB hard drives also put the XPS 410 on top when it comes to storage capacity (although the d4600y still offers a very reasonable dual 250GB HDD array), and both towers seem equally well-suited for multimedia applications with their on-board dual-tuner TV cards and plethora of connectivity options. In the end, each $2,000 system earned a Very Good score of exactly 7.2 from Cnet, with the Dell obviously getting the nod for gamers, while the cheap-looking but feature-filled HP sounds like a better choice for the all-around user who wants greater expandability. Luckily, the hot new dual-core processors in both PCs means that you'll be getting one of the fastest machines on the market, no matter which model you choose.

Read- Dell XPS 410
Read- HP Pavilion d4600y

When reviewing a computer from Alienware (or any other "boutique" electronics manufacturer, for that matter) it's difficult to compare to other systems on the market, mainly because these machines will offer a lot more power than your typical white box PC but also cost a good deal more than a similarly-equipped rig that you've built yourself. Therefore, setups like the ~$3,000 Aurora 7500 tower will never lead the pack in value, but XYZ Computing gives this particular model a thumbs up when it comes to performance, build quality, and upgradability -- and those benefits don't come cheap. As you'd expect, the 7500's dual-core AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor and dual nVidia GeForce 7900GT cards in SLI configuration make short work of even the toughest benchmarks, delivering more-than-acceptable framerates for high-end games even at a resolution of 1,600 x 1,200. Besides the steep price (though again, if you want this kind of power on the cheap, you're gonna have to spend hours building your own box), there's not much to criticize about this model, although XYZ laments the lack of dedicated fans for the dual hard drives and the fact that the toasty GPUs don't receive the same kind of liquid-cooling love as the CPU. Still, if you've got some extra dough laying around, but not a lot of extra time, it sounds like you can rest assured that the Aurora 7500 will deliver the top-notch fragging capabilities you desire.