Check out our review of the new Dell XPS 420

HP, Gateway, and Velocity Micro all introduced new mainstream desktops for the holiday season, and today it's Dell's turn. Those others might have more raw performance for the dollar than the new XPS 420, but none comes close to the wide array of new features Dell has on offer.

Dell sent us a $2,279 model, although when it goes on sale it will start at $1,499. You can read our full review here for the long version. Briefly, here's what stands out:

• First traditional desktop with an integrated SideShow LCD panel, for all those Vista Gadgets
• Digital home-oriented options include 802.11n networking (available shortly after launch), ATI Digital Cable Tuners, a Blu-ray burner, and hardware MPEG-2 transcoder (aka Dell Xcelerator)
• Hardware MPEG-2 transcoder is useful for making MPEG-2 video files PSP and iPod ready, but it needs better software and added support for QuickTime, DivX, and other formats
• Bundled Adobe Elements Studio software package helps you by giving you useful software for movie, photo, and audio editing, and helps Dell answer Apple's iLife suite.

We'll let the review lay out the rest of the specifics. Overall, we liked it and would recommend it if you're looking for a Windows system to serve as the anchor for your digital media needs. Just watch out for the baseline config. You'll probably need to spend money on upgrades to make this system truly outshine its competition.