Dell XPS 720 H2O Edition Gaming Desktop launched

Water cooled and overclocked

NEWS: 23 May 2007 9:33 GMT by Stuart Miles

Dell has expanded its line of desktop gaming systems with the new XPSTM 720 H2C Edition, what it's calling "a performance junkie’s dream" built around a variety of premium technologies designed for overclocking.

The stat sheet reads like a physics paper with more numbers, overclocking options upgrade offerings than most instruction manuals.

The system ships with 800MHz Corsair DOMINATORTM EPP memory modules (factory overclocked to 1066MHz) combined with Intel's multi-core processors (factory overclocked up to bin+3). Additionally, BIOS switches allow users to manipulate the speed of the front-side bus and chipset through Windows and third-party applications such as nVIDIA nTune2.

Of course this much power will produce plenty of heat, so Dell has included its patent-pending, two-stage liquid (yes you read that right) H2C Ceramic cooling technology that promises to deliver optimised thermal controls with minimal power.

“Hard-core gamers and technology enthusiasts continue to challenge us to push limits, and we relish turning those challenges into reality,” said Glen Robson, general manager, Dell’s worldwide gaming products. “Dell is committed to delivering the best PC gaming experience available, combining leading-edge hardware and accessory innovations with the most extreme games, and the XPS gaming products are designed to do exactly that.”

Systems configured with dual SLI-enabled nVIDIA GeForce graphics cards will be ideally suited to take on this year’s DirectX 10 gaming titles, as well as next-generation OpenGL titles.

Dell has even gone as far as pimping the desktop to include a lighting effect, also found on the company's XPS M1710 laptop model Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen would be proud of.

Called LightFX the system allows you to control three light zones; back, front/top, front/bottom, with eight intensity levels, and 16 colours, with the capability to create lighting scenarios that match specific game activities such as breathing or heartbeat.

Not cheap by any standards the system will cost $5,999 in the States. The XPS 720 H2C is available immediately in the U.S. and will be available the next few weeks in Europe.

Full system specs for the XPS 720 H2C Edition include:

- Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX6700 at 2.66GHz (factory overclocked to 3.46GHz) combined with nVIDIA nForce 680i SLi MCP (D)
- Dell H2C thermo-electric/liquid cooling system
- 2GB 800MHz Corsair DOMINATOR DDR2 memory featuring EPP (factory overclocked1 to 1066MHz)
- SLI-enabled dual 768MB nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards
- Dual 160GBsc3 SATA 3GB/s 10,000RPM hard drives that support RAID 0, 1 0+14 and 54
- 2X Blu-ray disc drive
- Sound BlasterTM X-FiTM XtremeMusic (D) sound card
- 24-inch UltraSharpTM 2407FPW widescreen digital display with Dell AS501 10-watt flat panel speakers
- Choice of Microsoft Windows VistaTM Home Premium or Windows XP Media Center
- 2.44mm-thick aluminum case with high gloss Piano Black paint and 1KW power supply
- One year At Home5 limited warranty6 service and support

Optional Upgrades include:

- Intel Core 2 Extreme quad-core processor QX6800 at 2.93GHz (factory overclocked1 to 3.73GHz)
- SLI-enabled dual nVida GeForce 8800 Ultra graphics cards
- AGEIA PhysX Processor
- 27-inch UltraSharpTM 2707WFP widescreen digital display
- Dell WL6000 5.8GHz Wireless rear 5.1 speaker system with subwoofer

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Have Your Say

I purchased this machine three months ago. It was a games wet dream in the beginning. However, the last 3 weeks have turned it into a nightmare. This system is being reported in generaly every major gaming forum I have researched for lock ups. I have more Blue screens of death with this machine than I ever did Win98. I may go for two or three hours between lock ups. I may get four or five lock ups in a fifteen minute period of gaming. Even sub standard polyon games as warcraft and quake 3 is enough to lock this $5,000 puppy up.

be your own judge if you chose to purchase this. But I would certainly return it to Dell, and build my own had I known these issues were to come. The money wasted on this can build you a much better machine.
Derek, USA
Try to call Dell about your issue. I had this same problem. Many random lockups.

I had the premium business support addon and Dell send a systemengineer within 1 businessday to replace all coolers and replace the video. Now at the moment my problems are truely solved. Im using vista ultimate 64 bit with the latest service packs and drivers. this also fix a lot of blue screens ;-)

I also advice to put the machine on a place where the heat can easily go up. the best you can do is put the tower on a area where is nothing else.

Goodluck.

Kind regards,

Bas van Beek
Webdeveloper
www.bvbmedia.nl
Bas van Beek, the Netherlands