Dell XPS 420

Keep in mind that the Q9550 model we previewed won't be available until Intel officially releases the chip (some time in the first quarter of 2008); hence, some details and specs for the system may change. Our test unit combined a Q9550 CPU with the same not-quite-state-of-the-art components as the Q96550 version we tested at the same time: 3GB of DDR2-800 memory (running at 667 MHz), an nVidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics board, and two Hitachi 320GB hard drives (for a smallish 640GB of storage overall) in a striped array.

The XPS 420's midsize tower case--a stylish combination of glossy black plastic and silvery metal--conceals the unit's only real drawback: It has just one free drive bay. On the bright side, our test machine came with several options we rarely see: front-mounted S-Video and RCA ports with the hardware Xcelerator option for transcoding video to your hard drive; a small, top-mounted LCD that utilizes Microsoft's Sideshow secondary display technology to give you external access to Vista sidebar gadgets; and Bluetooth to handle the included wireless GM952 keyboard and RM-RBB-DEL 4 mouse.