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For years I've had both a desktop and a notebook, but I've always used the two in very different ways. The powerful and oversize desktop is for fun at home; the slow but extremely portable notebook is for work during my commute and travel.

It's a strong line of demarcation that I've rarely crossed, but the restraint has never been that hard. After all, my dutiful but aging IBM ThinkPad X30 isn't exactly a gaming powerhouse, and my 21-inch desktop CRT monitor is a pain to carry onto the local BART train.

Then something happened. I tested Dell's XPS M1710 notebook, and the line between desktop and notebook began to blur.

Powerful and Pricey

The shipping red XPS M1710 I tested (the unit also comes in black) is one powerful notebook. It included a 2.16-GHz Intel Core Duo T2600 processor, 1GB of RAM, and nVidia's current top-of-the-line graphics processor, the GeForce 7900 GTX (with 512MB of memory).

The unit proved its mettle in our WorldBench 5 tests, notching a fantastic score of 106. Incidentally, that score tied our previous top-dog notebook, the beefy Aurora m7700 from Dell-owned Alienware.

The unit also did exceptionally well in our Doom 3 and Half Life 2 gaming tests. With Doom set to run at 1280 by 1024 and with antialiasing turned off, the unit posted 106 frames per second; with AA turned on it hit 88 fps. In Half Life 2, at 1280 by 1024 with AA turned off, it reached 128 fps; with AA turned on it nailed 113 fps.

All those frames per second don't mean squat if they don't look good. The M1710 covers that angle too, with a massive 17-inch wide-screen LCD that offers a native resolution of 1920 by 1200.

Of course, all this power and beauty has its cost. First there's the price: A heart-attack-inducing $3860 for our configuration. Second, there's the weight: 8.9 pounds flying solo, 10.6 pounds with the AC adapter (yes, that's a big, honkin' adapter). And you're going to need it because, third, the battery ran for only 2 hours, 33 minutes between charges in our tests. That's not exactly stellar--even for a desktop-replacement notebook.

More Multimedia, Please

Once the PC World Test Center finished its tests, and in my continuing pursuit of knowledge, I dutifully loaded up the M1710 with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Two words: Holy cow. Yes, it's a visually stunning game, with amazing outdoor scenes, but what's so cool is how masterfully the M1710 hardware handled it, even at the highest settings.

The notebook also did a fine job displaying my test DVD: Hellboy. The skin of the title character looked appropriately crimson, and the display handled the fast action well, though some of the darker scenes seemed a bit muddy.

The M1710's front-firing speakers and downward-firing subwoofer offered pretty good sound. But like most desktop PC enthusiasts, I found myself missing the surround sound achievable with even the most basic 5.1-speaker setup.

So I plugged in the Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Roadie. The $80 USB-based device takes over for your notebook's existing audio chip, allowing you to channel quality 5.1 audio to speakers or headphones through a plethora of different jacks.

Pretending I'd be using this nearly 11-pound behemoth notebook on the road, I connected the Roadie to Turtle Beach's Ear Force HPA headphones. These $100 cans create a surround sound environment by using four speakers for each ear (front, center, rear, and subwoofer).

I've never been a fan of "simulated" surround sound, but the Roadie and Ear Force HPA combination worked like a charm. Game play became more immersive, movies were more fun to watch, and music sounded great.

My only complaint: Despite the comfy pleather ear pads and the cleverly autoadjusting headband, the headphones put too much of a squeeze on my melon. I found myself having to take breaks after 30 to 45 minutes of use.

I have to say that I genuinely enjoyed using the Dell XPS M1710, especially when I plugged in the additional audio hardware. Could I see replacing my beloved desktop and ultraportable ThinkPad with one?

I think I answered my own question when I went to pack up the unit to take it home for an evening of additional Oblivion testing and it simply wouldn't fit in my Timbuk2 computer bag. Nor would it fit in my PC World standard-issue Targus computer bag. In fact, the only bag I could get it to fit into was an old, beat-up backpack (which is simply no way to treat a nearly $4000 notebook).

Yeah, it's portable--but just barely. I think in the end I'll probably always have a desktop and a notebook--but if I had to pick just one, the Dell would be an awful lot of fun.

Tom Mainelli had nightmares about getting trapped under the Dell XPS M1710. You can drop him a line here.