Dell XPS 710 H2C Edition: Faster than an actual rocket
Dell's latest XPS gaming rig is so quick it has to be cooled by the same technology they use in the Space Shuttle. Well, that's what they told us
We're big lovers of high-speed gaming PCs, so we damn-near frothed at the mouth when we saw the latest Dell XPS rig at CES 2007. The XPS 710 H2C Edition Gaming Desktop not only looks the part, but also has a gullet stuffed with high-speed components and an elaborate two-part liquid cooling system.
The system uses a liquid-to-air heat exchanger that's similar to a car's radiator to remove most of the heat from the processor. Any leftover heat is removed with "ceramic-based thermoelectric cooling" (TEC) modules "like those used in space shuttles to transfer heat from the sunny side to the cold, dark side in space," Dell told us.
It all sounds terribly futuristic, but the payoff is that the PC's Intel Core Extreme QX6700 quad-core processor is overclocked to 3.2GHz. That's quite a lot. It also uses a pair of Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards with quad SLI, so you can imagine how blisteringly quick it is. We reckon it could run Pong at several hundred thousand frames per second.
The PC also includes a maximum of 4GB of RAM, two 160GB hard drives with a spin speed of 10,000rpm and a 20-inch Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20-inch widescreen monitor. That last item is a tad shameful, because the monitor's maximum resolution is only 1,680x1,050 pixels -- we'd prefer something that can run 1080p.
The XPS 710 H2C Edition Gaming Desktop is available to buy right now for a mere £3,399. -RR
Update: A full review of the Dell XPS 710 H2C is now live.