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Photograph: Chris Manners
Dell Dell XPS 700
- Spec Navigator
- Processor
- Memory
- Storage
- Multimedia
- Software
- Optical Drives
- Expansion Slots
- Display
- Modem / Networking
- Case
- Other Features
- Interface Connection
Multimedia
| Audio Adapter Model | Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi |
| Audio Channels | 5.1 surround |
| Graphics Board RAM Type | DDR2 |
| Video chipset | nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU |
| Installed video memory | 1024 MB |
| Video bus | PCI Express |
Software
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition |
| Included Software |
|
Optical Drives
| Optical Drive Speed | 16 |
| Optical Drive Type | DVD-ROM |
| Second Optical Drive Speed | 8 |
| Second Optical Drive Type | DVD+R DL/DVD±RW |
Expansion Slots
| Open PCI Express X16 Slots | 1 |
| Number of PCI slots | 3 |
| Open PCI Express X1 Slots | 1 |
| PCI Express Slots | 4 |
| Slots | 3 |
| Other Storage | Five-in-one media-card reader |
- Lab Tested
- How We Test Desktops »
Pros
Chassis has robust design
Plenty of expansion room
Cons
Side panel is hard to remove
Bottom Line
Well-heeled gamers who want the option to expand their system will find room to grow in this stylish, powerful PC.
Dell XPS 700
Dell XPS 700 Review, by Richard Baguley July 13, 2006
The Dell XPS 700 is a big, powerful system that has plenty of processing muscle to spare. Flexing Intel's 2.66-GHz Core 2 Duo E6700 processor and 2GB of DDR2-667 RAM, the system earned an impressive score of 153 on our WorldBench 5 benchmark. That puts it behind the ABS Ultimate X9, which scored an incredible 181 (and which uses a Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor), but it's still 9 percent higher than the average score of our four previous top-performing systems, all of which used 2.6-GHz Athlon 64 X2 FX-60 CPUs. One area of big improvement was multitasking: in our test running both Windows Media Encoder and a Web browser at the same time, the Dell ran 14 percent faster than the quickest Athlon-based systems.
The XPS 700 targets gamers, but it should satisfy demanding graphics users, too. Our test system came equipped with an nVidia 7950 GX2 graphics card, which combines two GPUs. (Dell says that this conmfiguration will be available for purchase later this summer.) The PC managed an impressive 241 frames per second in Return to Castle Wolfenstein at 1600-by-1200-pixel resolution--an improvement of almost 49 percent over the frame rates posted by the two top performers on this test in our most recent Top 10 Power Desktop PCs chart. The futuristic styling of the XPS 700's large, aluminum case is both attractive and practical: The large grilles on the front and the rear and the large fans inside the spacious case allow air to pass through and cool the system almost silently. Even when the system was working hard, its noise level didn't rise above a whisper.
The forward-sloping case design also makes it easier for you to reach the cables at the back when the system is under a desk. The front and rear LED lights aren't just a visual treat (the user can set their color); they illuminate the USB 2.0 ports at the rear and the drive bays on the front of the system. That's a nice touch if you like to play games in the dark and need to swap CDs or peripherals.
The case is spacious, with enough room to hold four hard drives (our review system came with two 320GB drives in a striped RAID array for a generous total of 640GB of hard-drive storage) and four externally accessible drive bays. To make adding hard drives easier, Dell ships the system with the necessary SATA and power cables to add two hard drives to the two already in place. The unit also has plenty of room for additional expansion cards, with one PCI Express x16 slot, one PCI Express x1 slot, and two PCI slots unoccupied.
Installing drives or expansion cards is easy--no screwdriver is required, since all of the cards and drives are held firmly in place with latches that you can open by hand. Our only real complaint about the XPS's case was that the side was hard to remove: We had to use a significant amount of force to get the 2.5mm-thick aluminum side panel loose.
Dell bundled a 24-inch wide-screen 2407WFP LCD monitor with our review system. This display--which updates the 2405FPW that's currently ranked second on our chart of 23-inch and larger wide-screen LCD monitors--produced very attractive, bright, and sharp images, and smooth motion when playing back a movie DVD. It matches up well with the rest of this powerful system.
At $3985, the system is not cheap. But the speedy Dell XPS 700 has an edge in its smart, quiet design and easy expandability.
Richard Baguley
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PCWorld Lab Results
- Rating Breakdown
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84
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80
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84
- See Complete Lab Results »
Performance Comparison with Similar Desktops
84
87
79
89
Performance
| ACD Systems ACDSee | 357 |
| Adobe Photoshop | 221 |
| Adobe Premiere | 300 |
| Ahead Nero | 185 |
| Discreet 3ds Max DirectX | 229 |
| Discreet 3ds Max OpenGL | 226 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 138.77 |
| Doom 3 with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 137.47 |
| Doom 3, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 140.43 |
| Doom 3, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 141.37 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 180.35 |
| Far Cry with AA, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 173.41 |
| Far Cry, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 179.55 |
| Far Cry, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 179.49 |
| Microsoft Office XP | 478 |
| Mozilla | 239 |
| Multitasking | 297 |
| Musicmatch Jukebox | 363 |
| Overall Graphics Score | Very Good |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit | 257 |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 241.17 |
| Return to Castle Wolfenstein, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 243.53 |
| Roxio VideoWave | 211 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 16-Bit | 616.94 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1024 by 768, 32-Bit | 563.17 |
| Unreal Tournament, 1280 by 1024, 32-Bit | 582.7 |
| Windows Media Encoder | 211 |
| WinZip | 195 |
| World Bench 5 Score | 153 |
| World Bench 5 Word Score | Very Good |
User Reviews
Average User Reviews for Dell Dell XPS 700
7 Reviews Add your own »
- Latest User Reviews 7 reviews
-
Reviewed by: GEAR
Duration of ownership: 5 Months
Strengths: Great case....tons of room for expansion...very fast...very quiet...nice LED light setup....and the door is EASY to open
Weaknesses: Too much bloatware installed....case fairly heavy
Overall: I had a very short turn around time on the order...2 weeks...also had a very good experience with support after the power switch came apart...had the new switch AND I/O panel in my hands in less than 24 hours and installed myself.....runs ALL my games flawlessly and the 2007WFP monitor is also great....thought I had a problem with a floating point error...as it turned out it was the DELL/DIAGS....downloaded and installed new DIAGS and everything tested 100% XPS 700 Black Intel Core2 2.93GHz X6800 1066FSB 2GB DDR2 667 Dual Nvidia 7900GTX 512 160GB SATA WDC NCQ 10,000RPM H/D BTX Mainboard Sony DVD-ROM NEC CDRW Broadcom NetXtreme Network Dell 2007WFP Creative X-Fi Audio Saitek Eclipse Razer Death Adder
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Reviewed by: DellsCommunistCapo
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: 1GB NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 Dual-GPU Graphics Card 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs Intel® Coreâ¢2 Extreme X6800 (4MB L2 Cache,2.93GHz,1066 FSB
Weaknesses: Genuine Windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition with re-installation CD
Overall: WoW Pc World obviously didnt get the best system out of our 700 series. We do have the same processor as The number 1. Stupid bias people hating on dell computers, just because they dont have the money for the stuff we put inside. pathetic.
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Reviewed by: sammyboy211v
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: Fast an reliable. Got my 710 within two weeks of ordrer. Lightning killed my 20" screen after only two days. Dell knocked on my door the next day with a new screen fre off charge... Great service.....
Weaknesses: None
Overall: This pc rocks....
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Reviewed by: EEWdad
Duration of ownership: 2 Days
Strengths: The chassis is built like a tank, it is rock solid. The internal wiring is very nicely detailed. It is quiet, spacious and meant to be powerful. Load 'er up. This is one terrific machine.
Weaknesses: Dual video cards make one of the seven PCI slots unusable. Did I mention that it was big? It is really... well, big. This is not your mid-tower design; wherever you decide to put it, plan on it taking up some serious room.
Overall: Though I've just had it a few days, I can't help but be impressed with how nicely the machine is put together. I'm hoping it will perform as well as it looks. ;>)
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Reviewed by: Ross
Duration of ownership: 1 Month
Strengths: speed is incredible, graphics cannot be matched, the 20" ws monitor is wonderful
Weaknesses: expensive
Overall: This machine is incredible! Extremely fast and I have not had a single problem...yet. I have recommended this system to all of my friends! Also, to the non-believers, Dell has ALWAYS been there for me and gone above and beyond to either help me fix problems or get somebody out here quickly to do it for me, even when the problem was caused by my stupidity. I won 7 Dell computers and will continue to buy from them.
-
Reviewed by: capnahab
Duration of ownership: 2 Months
Strengths: none dell computers are junk.
Weaknesses: Does not run, freezes, hardware errors etc.
Overall: Dell sent me a XPS 600 as a replacment for my faulty XPS Gen 3. The XPS 600 does not run, has never completely ran. I have called Dell and have been on hold waiting for a call back from upper level support peolpe who will not answer phone or return calls. My advice is IF IT SAYS DELL ON IT, STAY AWAY FROM IT.
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Reviewed by: sms1295
Duration of ownership: 0 Month
Strengths: N/A
Weaknesses: System has not been shipped
Overall: The review that PC World has provide once an XPS 700 system is actually shipped to a customer. As of now, no system has shipped and the estimated ship date is October. Since the system was offered in June and has not shipped, it would be wise for another PC World review once one ships.
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