The system
The system is a newly designed case from Dell. Unlike the poor XPS 600, which was little more than a silver version of its standard tower cases, this has been designed from the ground up to be a gamer's case, and has more than a little taste of Alienware about it.
It has a forward lean to it, designed to make the system look aggressive. It's finished in lacquered aluminium - that means you get the gorgeous aluminium colour, but with a finish that is virtually scratch-proof. The side panel has an XPS motif in the corner.
The front has a corrugated black plastic finish. The optical drives are stealthed behind this fascia, although each drive bay has a button that will connect with an eject button behind it.
One of the most striking design features is the indentation that gives the appearance of a racing stripe down the side, giving the case a little bit of a figure-of-eight look and evoking images of sports car design lines.
Moving around to the rear of the machine, the look is fairly standard - apart from one thing. Notice how the motherboard is mounted on the right hand side of the machine? That's BTX, that is. The PSU is mounted at the top, with no rear fan - Dell thinks its thermals are good enough to cope without.
The cards are held in place with a screwless clip system much like that found on the Cooler Master Mystique.
Let's prise this thing open and get inside...
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