Introduction
I placed my order for the XPS 700 Jet Black Edition XPS computer on the 4th of November. After hearing some advice from notebookforums.com to buy an Alienware, I sought a comparable product at a lower price; I found dell.
Why did I buy a Dell? Well first off, the product, the XPS 700 was somewhat comparable to the Alienware I was planning on buying and plus, my entire family uses Dell so I thought; why not?
I ordered on a Saturday afternoon and was very excited Monday when I saw that my computer was being built. However, one minor gripe I have about the dell build system is that their progress is not updated gradually, at least it wasn’t for me, and the build progress went from order processed to testing just like that! Annoying, but the computer was worth the wait.
The Shocking Arrival
I received the computer about…11 days after ordering. There was a mix up though; I had to go pick the computer up myself because I missed their delivery to our place. I thought whatever, I’ll just get a ride to the correct UPS distribution center and pick up the computer. No big deal at all here.
When they finally pulled the box(es) out of storage, the monitor and the actual computer, I was shocked at the sheer size of the computer (in box and out of box, but the second one comes later when I open the truck of a box). A GIANT! At least 2 ft tall and maybe…3 ft deep. It took all my strength to move that monster onto the car and when I got home, took both me AND my uncle to move the damn thing into my room. Seriously, that was very heavy. So it's no surprise that the chassis, in my opinion, was very sturdy and well built. The legs that you have to install are a bit annoying to install but once you finish with that, it’s not that bad after all.
Oh and did I mention that it’s a bit heavy? The entire thing weighs at least 60lbs or more, so if you buy one, you won’t be moving it around too much; trust me.
The side doors are thick aluminum and feel very sturdy, as you will also see in other reviews of this computer. The chassis lights, the LED lights on the front and back are a cool little addition to the computer and would be great at a LAN party or something.
The included CD wallet feels a bit cheaply made but I can’t complain because it’s apparently “free”. I didn’t find any missing software and everything came at once. And plus, I love the smell of a new computer. Oh and how nice, Dell included a free mouse pad for my laptop as well as some other things that any new computer would come with. Manuals and all that…
Monitor/Mouse/Keyboard and Speaker System Details:
Nice monitor. Looks nice, really big resolutions, beautiful colors and all that but…it feels like the stand that it comes with struggles just a tiny bit against its weight. If you’re typing fast on your keyboard, the monitor might shake just a tiny bit but you aren’t likely to notice if you’re not as picky as me.
Otherwise, great monitor! Comes with built in USB 2.0 ports and a bunch of connections on the back. Plus, it looks good too. But I wish the thing were bigger so I could get to higher resolutions on my video card, the 7950GX2.
The mouse, RAZER Diamondback Chameleon gaming mouse, is the first gaming mouse I have ever owned. I would say its great bang for the buck. Great looks, glowing and all, and functionality with on-the-fly sensitivity changing and all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a high-end gaming mouse.
Very responsive and great for gaming, especially with the oversized mouse pad they provide. After using that mouse pad, using any smaller ones just felt kinda weird when playing games like CS 1.6, etc. Great stuff
And as a match for the RAZER Diamondback, the Eclipse keyboard provides not that much functionality but lots of cool looks for a pretty low price. Pretty sensitive keyboard and a nice glowing effect in the back of the keys. Visible in any lighting environment, great for any games you can buy!!
The Z-5500 speakers will not disappoint you. Surround sound, 5.1 sound and a huge subwoofer. Front center, front right, front left, rear left, rear right, it’s all there; great sound and many options but expensive.
When you pair the speakers with the X-Fi card, wow, that’s one gaming experience to remember. Especially in FPS games when you can hear if someone’s coming up to knife you or whatever. When you're coming from regular stereo sound into the world of 3D/directional sound gaming, it's a pretty cool feeling; at least it was for me
Overall Impression:
Big, monstrous size, great power for pricing. The performance is great and I can run all my games at max settings without any noticeable lag or any at all. The surround sound is great, but it kinda sucks that the subwoofer has to be at least 2 feet away from any and all electronics because of powerful magnets. Not only is the sound great, the visuals coming from the monitor are great and the lights on the XPS chassis are also pretty cool; although if you don’t position the computer correctly, the lights can be kinda annoying if they’re in your face. Hmm, otherwise, the cooling system seems to be working great. Good temps on GPUs and mobo, overall great product!
However, if you buy from Dell, prepare to get some pretty bad customer service. The customer service representatives are hard to understand at times, like Microsoft's customer service, and it can be more frustrating to call them for help then to Google whatever it is you need help with and fix the problem yourself.
Concluding Thoughts:
Now this may not be the BEST gaming rig out there, but it certainly packs some power to be reckoned with. It's size makes it not too much of a LAN party beast, however you could install wheels or something. I feel like I got what I paid for: a stable, fast and cool looking gaming machine that is able to handle all my games at the highest resolutions at pretty good frame rates (60fps and up). Build time was pretty quick and I wouldn't mind it the least buying another product from Dell.
Also, a special thank you to everyone that helped in my decision to buy this product. You guys rock! That's why I'm posting this review, after deleting my previous post that I thought was somewhat premature and required more thought but that's another story for another time.
ROCK ON NOTEBOOKFORUMS!
Oh and before I forget, some performance measurements:
Half-Life 2 (1680 x 1050 res; Maxed Out settings (High details, reflect all, etc); 6x Antiailiasing; 16x Anisotropic; v-sync; Full HDR): about an average of 65 fps, goes higher than 70 sometimes
Half-Life 2: Episode One (1680 x 1050 res; Maxed Out settings (High details, reflect all, etc)); 6x Antiailiasing; 16x Anisotropic; v-sync; Full HDR): averages about 62 fps, drops below sometimes all the way to 30 - 35 when lots of crazy stuff is going on in-game.
Battlefield 2142 (max all settings, meaning I went to the video settings and put everything to the max that there was): according to FRAPS, I'm getting a constant over 70 fps average. So the average would be over 69 - 71 fps.
F.E.A.R (max all settings, same as above): according to FRAPS, 30 fps average. Can drop to about 15 - 20 fps.
PS: I would post pics, but I don't have a host that would host my huge BMPs
For benchmark scores, look to my signature below
I placed my order for the XPS 700 Jet Black Edition XPS computer on the 4th of November. After hearing some advice from notebookforums.com to buy an Alienware, I sought a comparable product at a lower price; I found dell.
Why did I buy a Dell? Well first off, the product, the XPS 700 was somewhat comparable to the Alienware I was planning on buying and plus, my entire family uses Dell so I thought; why not?
I ordered on a Saturday afternoon and was very excited Monday when I saw that my computer was being built. However, one minor gripe I have about the dell build system is that their progress is not updated gradually, at least it wasn’t for me, and the build progress went from order processed to testing just like that! Annoying, but the computer was worth the wait.
The Shocking Arrival
I received the computer about…11 days after ordering. There was a mix up though; I had to go pick the computer up myself because I missed their delivery to our place. I thought whatever, I’ll just get a ride to the correct UPS distribution center and pick up the computer. No big deal at all here.
When they finally pulled the box(es) out of storage, the monitor and the actual computer, I was shocked at the sheer size of the computer (in box and out of box, but the second one comes later when I open the truck of a box). A GIANT! At least 2 ft tall and maybe…3 ft deep. It took all my strength to move that monster onto the car and when I got home, took both me AND my uncle to move the damn thing into my room. Seriously, that was very heavy. So it's no surprise that the chassis, in my opinion, was very sturdy and well built. The legs that you have to install are a bit annoying to install but once you finish with that, it’s not that bad after all.
Oh and did I mention that it’s a bit heavy? The entire thing weighs at least 60lbs or more, so if you buy one, you won’t be moving it around too much; trust me.
The side doors are thick aluminum and feel very sturdy, as you will also see in other reviews of this computer. The chassis lights, the LED lights on the front and back are a cool little addition to the computer and would be great at a LAN party or something.
The included CD wallet feels a bit cheaply made but I can’t complain because it’s apparently “free”. I didn’t find any missing software and everything came at once. And plus, I love the smell of a new computer. Oh and how nice, Dell included a free mouse pad for my laptop as well as some other things that any new computer would come with. Manuals and all that…
Monitor/Mouse/Keyboard and Speaker System Details:
Nice monitor. Looks nice, really big resolutions, beautiful colors and all that but…it feels like the stand that it comes with struggles just a tiny bit against its weight. If you’re typing fast on your keyboard, the monitor might shake just a tiny bit but you aren’t likely to notice if you’re not as picky as me.
Otherwise, great monitor! Comes with built in USB 2.0 ports and a bunch of connections on the back. Plus, it looks good too. But I wish the thing were bigger so I could get to higher resolutions on my video card, the 7950GX2.
The mouse, RAZER Diamondback Chameleon gaming mouse, is the first gaming mouse I have ever owned. I would say its great bang for the buck. Great looks, glowing and all, and functionality with on-the-fly sensitivity changing and all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a high-end gaming mouse.
Very responsive and great for gaming, especially with the oversized mouse pad they provide. After using that mouse pad, using any smaller ones just felt kinda weird when playing games like CS 1.6, etc. Great stuff
And as a match for the RAZER Diamondback, the Eclipse keyboard provides not that much functionality but lots of cool looks for a pretty low price. Pretty sensitive keyboard and a nice glowing effect in the back of the keys. Visible in any lighting environment, great for any games you can buy!!
The Z-5500 speakers will not disappoint you. Surround sound, 5.1 sound and a huge subwoofer. Front center, front right, front left, rear left, rear right, it’s all there; great sound and many options but expensive.
When you pair the speakers with the X-Fi card, wow, that’s one gaming experience to remember. Especially in FPS games when you can hear if someone’s coming up to knife you or whatever. When you're coming from regular stereo sound into the world of 3D/directional sound gaming, it's a pretty cool feeling; at least it was for me
Overall Impression:
Big, monstrous size, great power for pricing. The performance is great and I can run all my games at max settings without any noticeable lag or any at all. The surround sound is great, but it kinda sucks that the subwoofer has to be at least 2 feet away from any and all electronics because of powerful magnets. Not only is the sound great, the visuals coming from the monitor are great and the lights on the XPS chassis are also pretty cool; although if you don’t position the computer correctly, the lights can be kinda annoying if they’re in your face. Hmm, otherwise, the cooling system seems to be working great. Good temps on GPUs and mobo, overall great product!
However, if you buy from Dell, prepare to get some pretty bad customer service. The customer service representatives are hard to understand at times, like Microsoft's customer service, and it can be more frustrating to call them for help then to Google whatever it is you need help with and fix the problem yourself.
Concluding Thoughts:
Now this may not be the BEST gaming rig out there, but it certainly packs some power to be reckoned with. It's size makes it not too much of a LAN party beast, however you could install wheels or something. I feel like I got what I paid for: a stable, fast and cool looking gaming machine that is able to handle all my games at the highest resolutions at pretty good frame rates (60fps and up). Build time was pretty quick and I wouldn't mind it the least buying another product from Dell.
Also, a special thank you to everyone that helped in my decision to buy this product. You guys rock! That's why I'm posting this review, after deleting my previous post that I thought was somewhat premature and required more thought but that's another story for another time
. ROCK ON NOTEBOOKFORUMS!
Oh and before I forget, some performance measurements:
Half-Life 2 (1680 x 1050 res; Maxed Out settings (High details, reflect all, etc); 6x Antiailiasing; 16x Anisotropic; v-sync; Full HDR): about an average of 65 fps, goes higher than 70 sometimes
Half-Life 2: Episode One (1680 x 1050 res; Maxed Out settings (High details, reflect all, etc)); 6x Antiailiasing; 16x Anisotropic; v-sync; Full HDR): averages about 62 fps, drops below sometimes all the way to 30 - 35 when lots of crazy stuff is going on in-game.
Battlefield 2142 (max all settings, meaning I went to the video settings and put everything to the max that there was): according to FRAPS, I'm getting a constant over 70 fps average. So the average would be over 69 - 71 fps.
F.E.A.R (max all settings, same as above): according to FRAPS, 30 fps average. Can drop to about 15 - 20 fps.
PS: I would post pics, but I don't have a host that would host my huge BMPs
For benchmark scores, look to my signature below
