Dell XPS 700 - reviewed, dissected

Our XPS 700 test rig

The system that Dell sent us over was as follows:

• XPS 700 gaming chassis;
  
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6700;
  
• 2GB DDR2 667MHz memory (2x 1GB sticks);
  
• Proprietary nForce 590 motherboard;
  
• GeForce 7900 GTX graphics card;
  
• 2x Western Digital 250GB HDDs in RAID 0;
  
• Creative X-Fi;
  
• 16x DVD-ROM, 16x DVD±RW;
  
• 750W PSU;
  
  
• 3-year on-site warranty;
  
• Windows XP Media Center Edition;
  
  
• Price: £2,327.

What can we say about this specification? Well, the most obvious thing is that the selection of memory for this system is totally retarded - yes, it's great to have 2GB across two sticks, but why does Dell even offer the option of 667MHz memory, let alone send it in for a system review? The E6700 is designed to run at 800MHz, but Dell doesn't offer an option to have two sticks of that speed at 2GB, which is really, really stupid. Speccing the system with 4x 512MB modules to make 2GB at the correct 800MHz speed (filling all the slots, slowing speed and reducing upgradeability) results in another £130 being added to the price, which is outrageous - which isn't even considering the fact that the latencies on the memory are appalling. Our recommendation is to buy this system with the minimum amount of RAM possible and whack in some Corsair or OCZ purchased separately.

You can spec anything from a Core 2 Duo 6300 up to a 6800 Extreme Edition. You can add a second 7900 GTX for £390, which is well above market rate for that card, so again, we'd suggest buying separately if you intend to go with SLI. There's no option for a 7950 GX2, or to go ATI - this is an NVIDIA motherboard, and Dell only wants you to put NVIDIA graphics cards in it.

We put the system through our round of system tests against reference systems from Intel and AMD.

Test Setup:

Dell XPS 700 System Setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - 2.67GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 4MB L2 cache; Dell proprietary BTX motherboard (NVIDIA nForce 590 Intel chipset); Dell proprietary 7900 GTX video card (operating at 650/1600MHz); 2x 1GB generic memory (running at DDR2-667 with 5.0-5-5-16 timings; 2x Western Digital 2500JS 250GB drives in NVIDIA RAID 0; Generic DVD±RW drive; Phillips 16x DVD-ROM drive; Dell ATX 750W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; NVIDIA Forceware 84.21 WHQL.

Intel Core 2 Duo System Setup:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 - 2.67GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 4MB L2 cache; Intel Desktop D975XBX motherboard (Intel 975X/ICH7R chipset); BFG Tech GeForce 7900 GTX OC video card (operating at 670/1640MHz); 2x1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 DDR2 memory (running at DDR2-800 with 3.0-3-3-9 timings); Seagate 7200.9 200GB SATA Hard Disk Drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive, OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; Intel Inf 7.22 WHQL platform drivers; NVIDIA Forceware 91.31 WHQL.

AMD Athlon 64 System Setup:

AMD Athlon 64 FX-62 - 2.8GHz, 1GHz HTT, 2x1MB L2 cache; ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard (NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI chipset); BFG Tech GeForce 7900 GTX OC video card (operating at 670/1640MHz); 2x1GB Corsair XMS2-6400C3 DDR2 memory (running at DDR2-800 with 3.0-3-3-9-1T timings); Seagate 7200.9 200GB SATA Hard Disk Drive; LG 16x DVD-ROM drive, OCZ GameXStream 700W PSU; Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2; NVIDIA nForce Standalone 9.35 WHQL platform drivers; NVIDIA Forceware 91.31 WHQL.