Filed under: Laptops

A few spicy tidbits have been showing up on Dell’s websites pointing to some Core 2 Duo releases sooner rather than later. Their UK website lists Core 2 Duo versions of their XPS M1210, M1710, M2010 and Inspiron e1705 and e1505 laptops, while the US support site mentions a BIOS update to allow current owners of those laptops to upgrade to Merom processors. So far there isn’t any official word from Dell on any such upgrades, and you’ll have to call up Dell in the UK to try and finagle those Core 2 Duo models, but it seems like Dell fans aren’t going to have to wait too long to get some of that next-gen Intel action.

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The XPS 410, with Intel’s Core 2 Duo E6600 inside, is one speedy entertainment machine. Although not thrifty by any means at $2,405, this unit comes with a 20-inch widescreen LCD and lots of gamer and power-user components inside.

The GeForce7900 graphics card, dual TV Tuner, dual-port Firewire Card, and dual 320GB Serial ATA hard drives (configured in RAID0 or 1) gets you a boat-load of performance. Again, the two and a half grand price tag may put this out of range for bargain hunters, but for people who love the bleeding edge Core 2 Duo CPUs, Dell’s got a juicy unit with your name on it. – Jason Chen

Dell XPS 410 (Core 2 Duo E6600) [CNET]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

Intel fanboys will be delighted — and AMD should be a little worried — to know that the fine folks at PC Mag have nothing but positive things to say about Falcon Northwest’s new Core 2 Extreme (formerly named “Conroe“) toting Mach V. The specs are impressive all around, including two 10,000RPM 150GB SATA drives in a RAID 0 configuration, 2GB RAM and two ATI X1900 3D cards, but the real news here is how much of an improvement they saw over the older, AMD-based systems. Many of PC Mag’s old benchmark records were crushed, with the Mach V suffering its only defeat at the hands of one of Polywell’s quad SLI machines in the Doom 3 test. If that wasn’t impressive enough, the addition of a liquid-cooling system also helps this gaming rig run cooler and much quieter than previous versions. As you probably could have guessed, all that performance doesn’t come cheap, so you’ll have to decide for yourself whether or not a fancy paintjob and the ability to run your favorite PC games at 2,560 x 1,600 is worth the $7,000 price. But hey, at least it’s not $10,000.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

NotebookReview got their mits on Dell's brand new XPS M1210 laptop for a looksee and really liked what they found. Indeed, while the design may leave a bit to be desired, it's hard not to like the specs on this one, especially when they're maxed out like the review unit they got. It came loaded with a 2.16GHz T6500 Core Duo processor, a 100GB 7200 rpm HD, 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 graphics, and built-in EVDO, all in a 4.4 pound package measuring 11.7x8.7x1.2-inches, with one of those new glossy 12.1-inch LCDs all the cool kids have. Depsite having a few quibbles with the keyboard, and the fact that at 4.4 pounds it's not exactly an ultraportable, NotebookReview gave the XPS M1210 high marks across the board, finding that it lives up to its billing as a gaming laptop, able to run Half-Life 2 on high detail without any problems. They also complained that the laptop ran a bit warm, but then again, what doesn't?

[Thanks, Dan H and Ben]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

If you've been hankering to get your hands on one of Dell's next-gen gaming boxes, but can't bring yourself to fork over $10,000 for one of the company's limited edition deals, you can now order a production model XPS 700 (which looks an awful lot like the "XPS Next Generation Gaming Desktop" that the company showed off at E3) from Dell's web site -- at least in the UK. The production XPS doesn't have quite the same specs as the limited edition models (sorry, no standard quad SLI on this one), but it does have dual-core Pentium processors at speeds of up to 3.8GHz, up to 2GB RAM, dual SLI, optional Aegia PhysX acceleration and up to 2TB storage. A base configuration with a Pentium D 930 at 3GHz, 1GB RAM, dual 256MB SLI graphics and a 250GB drive runs about £1,375, including VAT ($2,581). We assume that it will go for a bit less in the US, though we still expect Dell to charge a premium for those shiny blue LEDs.

[Thanks, Gaurav]

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Not that we really doubted that the specs and pictures were fake, but now we have confirmation that Dell's XPS M1210 gaming laptop is indeed real, and already on sale in Japan. NotebookReview, who's been following this 12.1-inch UXGA model ever since it was leaked onto the web last month, reports that Dell Japan is offering the M1210 in configurations that max out with a 2.0GHz T2500 Core Duo processor, a hefty 4GB of RAM, 120GB of HDD space, nVidia GeForce Go 7400 graphics, an ExpressCard slot, and the usual assortment of ports and wireless radios. Using our superior knowledge of feature sets, we had predicted that this model would be cheaper than its 17-inch big brother, the $5,000 M1710, and sure enough, you'll be able to shell out at as little as $1,189 for the opportunity to become a proud member of the XPS club.

[Via NotebookReview]

Filed under: Desktops

Looks like Dell wasn't too displeased with the result of that limited run $10,000 XPS 600 Renegade series of theirs, since they're busting that move again with their new XPS: X-Men box based on the new system they were showing off at E3. It's just too bad you can't buy it though, since they're giving away the apparently one-of-a-kind quad NVIDIA carded and Intel Pentium 965 Extreme Edition equipped machine as a tie-in with this month's launch of that new X-Men movie. Ah well, you'll get yours built to order soon enough, but you're going to have to pay for it your damn self.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops

If you thought you had to be at E3 to check out Dell's new gaming boxes, we've got some good news for you: Dell has launched a web site to show off the prototype models, the cleverly named XPS Next Generation Gaming Desktop and the previously revealed XPS Mobile Entertainment Concept laptop. The bad news? Dell's Flash-heavy teaser site for the boxes provides little in the way of real specs (unless you consider a statement that the desktop will include "some of the latest processors, graphics capabilities and performance hard drives" enough info). The site does, however, show off some of the desktop's external features, including an aluminum case, a choice of LEDs in 7 different colors, and -- woo hoo -- a stabilizing fin. No specs on the laptop either, natch, but we already have the goods on that one. We're not sure if Dell plans to bring either of these to market, or if they're just eye candy designed to attract gamers to existing products, like the M1710 notebook. However, we expect the desktop to show up in some form, if only so that Dell can try to say that the company's home-grown, Intel-based gear is as good as the AMD stuff they picked up from Alienware -- which, at this point, may be the whole point of keeping the XPS line alive in the first place.

[Thanks, Templedog]

Filed under: Gaming, Laptops

Today Dell dropped a new XPS gaming laptop in the form of the M1710. This rig hauls up to a 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo T2600, 17-inch widescreen display, 512MB nVidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX graphics, 4GB of DDR2 RAM, a 120GB SATA disk, dual-layer DVD combo drive, and an array of I/O ports including Firewire, 6 x USB 2.0, DVI and component video, S/PDIF digital audio out, hi-def sound with integrated sub, and 5-in-1 memory card reader. But this type of performance ain't cheap, son. A fully spec'd slab in Special Edition Formula Red "armor" will set you back right around $5,000. Look out Velocity, game's on cuz.

[Thanks, Micum M]

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming

If you've been saving your pennies for one of Dell's $10,000 XPS 600 Renegade computers, you can stop now and spend the cash on something else (like, maybe, an Alienware box). Dell has announced that the luxe gaming rig is already sold out, after less than a month on the market. Of course, the Renegade was always listed as a "Limited Edition" box, and Dell was a little coy about what that actually meant. We figure they probably made about 10, and Michael Dell picked up at least three of those for his own collection, and gave two more to Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila. The other five? Our guess is that they burst into flames from that "factory overclocked" processor (or the paint job), and are now being refurbished for sale via Dell's outlet site for a mere $8,999.

[Thanks, Michael]