- Lower Cost For Performance System
- PCI Express and DDR2 Support for Future Expansion
- Includes Productivity Software
- Only 512MB Base Memory
- Requires Customization To Match Performance of Other Systems
- No Burner Included in Base Configuration
- Intel Pentium 4 560 (3.6GHz) Processor with Intel 925X Based Motherboard
- 512MB PC4300 DDR2 Memory
- 80GB Seagate Serial ATA Hard Drive
- 16x DVD-ROM Optical Drive
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Audio Card
- ATI Radeon X800 XT PCI Express Graphics Card with 256MB Memory
- Intel 1Gbps Ethernet
- 17" Dell M783s CRT Monitor
- Eight USB 2.0 and Two FireWire Ports
- Windows XP Home Operating System, Word Perfect Productivity Software and MS Money
6/27/04 - Dell enetered into the gaming desktop market with Dimension XPS and it has evolved over time. The latest version is being called the "Generation 3" system and while it looks the same, the internals have changed considerably.
The XPS Gen3 system is based around the new Intel 925X chipset and socket T design. This allows the system to use new technologies that are just now entering the market instead of legacy tech that is reaching the end of its useful life. The first of these is DDR2 memory. The 512MB of PC4300 DDR2 in this system doesn't perform very different from the previous DDR PC3200, but there is greater future potential.
The other major technology introduced by this new platform is PCI Express. The first items to benefit from this are video cards. The system comes with an ATI Radeon X800 XT PCIe graphics card which performas just as well as the AGP 8x version. It will take some time for the benefits to catch up with the new bus, but that gives the XPS Gen3 a long usable lifespan.
Storage on the system is somewhat lacking for the base system. It only comes standard with an 80GB Seagate SATA hard drive and a 16X DVD-ROM drive. It would be nice to see a burner standard.
Dell does make up for this with an included 17" CRT monitor and software bundle. This makes the Dell XPS more of a glorified desktop rather than a pure gaming system. Customization at increased cost will eventually give performance similar to dedicated performance systems.
