Xps710
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Dell's XPS 720 upgrade kit revealed
When Dell's gaming powerhouse XPS 700 was delayed last year, the company attempted to make things right by promising a free Core 2 Duo upgrade when those boards became availabile -- and now the Direct2Dell blog has some shots of the kit 700 owners can expect to receive when the program goes live. It's pretty much what you'd expect: the new mobo from the XPS 720, and the mounting hardware and front I/O panel to match. Somewhat more interesting is the option to upgrade to an Intel QX6700 Core 2 Quad for 25% off Dell's usual price, and the fact that XPS 710 owners will also be able to get in on the upgrade action -- although they'll have to pay for the privilege. We gotta hand it to Dell -- lately they've been pretty good at the whole lemons / lemonade thing. Let's hope a few more companies take the hint.
The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Desktop of the Year
Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Desktop of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Monday, April 16th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Alienware Area-51 ALX, Apple iMac 24-inch, Apple Mac Pro, Dell XPS 710, Sony VAIO L / LS, and Sony VAIO RC. %Poll-346%
ExtremeTech's Ultimate Gaming Machine shoot-out
ExtremeTech and Games for Windows magazine have combined their forces to take on a few of the ultimate gaming machines that are tearing up the scene these days. Over the last week, they rocked six, that's right, six full-on reviews of these rapacious rigs: the Dell XPS 710, Gateway FX530XT Gaming PC, CyberPower Gamer Infinity SLI KO, Alienware Area-51 ALX, Falcon Northwest Mach V, and VoodooPC Omen (pictured). First up is the Dell XPS 710, which really didn't get high marks at all -- they dubbed it a "very average system." What made it deserve such a panning? Basically, the site found that it's overpriced ($5,314) for the performance you get (2.66GHz Core 2 Extreme Quad QX6700) -- Dell seems to have spent the extra money on case design and not the actual components. When stacked up against a very close rival, the Gateway FX530XT, ExtremeTech found that the 530 edged out the Dell system, earning points for a faster chip (3.24GHz QX6700 quad-core), smaller case, lower price ($4,030), and quieter fan. Keep reading to check out the rest of the hardcore action...
Dell's quad-core XPS 710 gaming rig, for designers
Dell's bringing the quad-core gaming heat this morning with a Core 2 Extreme QX6700 update to their XPS 700 gaming rig. The new XPS 710 is said to be a "gaming beast" offering "up to" a 55% bump in performance at an equivalent premium over its C2E dual-core cuz. Just be careful here folks, 'cause as we've seen in the reviews, the QX6700 is matched in performance by the dual-core X6800 and E6700 procs (found in the XPS 700) when tested in real world gaming scenarios despite having twice the cores. See most games simply aren't written for four cores -- yet -- having just now adapted to dual-core architectures. But let's wait for the reviews before getting too far ahead of ourselves on this. Prices start at $3,699 for that quad-core luxury in jet black chassis or $3,799 for Special Edition Formula Red and heftier 1-kilowatt power supply. Just don't come crying to us if you find it better suited at 'Shopping images than an all night frag-fest.
