BIOS: Technology Means Business

Dell's Dimension XPS 600 is the world's first OEM Intel-based desktop to deliver nVidia nForce 4 SLI x16 technology. You can play all of today's popular games or movies at the most intense and vivid settings - the way they're meant to be played - while offering the system performance necessary to run future games and multimedia applications. It's pricey and bulky, but the Dimension XPS 600 is about as cutting-edge as home PCs get. It comes with a great 24-inch widescreen LCD and surround sound audio system too, so you're ready to rock straight from the box.

Pros: Elite performance; masses of I/O ports; great screen & speakers
Cons: Intel only; huge chassis; expensive; few SLI-enabled games yet

Dell, the world's largest computer manufacturer, has gone hardcore gaming. The Dimension XPS 600 (Best Current Price: £1091), which is available now in three base models, comes in a swanky new silver livery and runs two nVidia nForce 4 SLI-based graphics chips. We've reviewed the top-of-the-range model, which costs a staggering £2399 (inc. VAT). If you want the ultimate in gaming performance, but don't care how big the package (the full-tower case is back-breakingly big and heavy), Dell's new desktop is a cracker.

Although the system is geared towards extreme gaming, it'll also breeze through any day-to-day computing duties thrown at it. But the real star of the show is nVidia's Scalable Link Interface, or SLI, which Dell hasn't used before. SLI allows the use of two graphics processors at once through a high-speed PCIe connection in order to produce blistering frame rates on many 3D games (often require dedicated drivers).

The Dimension XPS 600 provides two PCIe x16 slots optimised for those who want to use dual graphics cards in a single system (two GeForce 7800 GTXs with 256MB are included here). Dual graphics cards and dual-core processors can significantly improve performance for gaming and multimedia applications. Indeed, Dell's use of dual x16 PCIe graphics with nVidia SLI x16 technology can increase video bandwidth by up to 100 per cent compared to competitive dual x8 PCIe-based systems - as long as there's relevant software driver support. NVidia's latest card also supports Shader Model 3.0 and HDR (High Dynamic Range).

Additional specifications of the system are equally impressive, including support for Intel Extreme Edition, Pentium 4 6xx single-core and 8xx dual-core processors (3.2GHz Pentium D 840 reviewed here), and up to 2GB of 667MHz DDR2 memory via four DIMM slots (1GB included here). The Dimension XPS 600 supports up to three hard drives for storage of up to 1.5TB and these drives are available from 160GB to 500GB capacities - our test system included 500GB (SATA) storage space using Stripe Raid 0.

Dell also integrated 16x DVD+/-RW and 16x DVD-ROM drives (CD-RW drive options also available), Creative Sound Blaster Audigy ZS soundcard (why no Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS?), and Gigabit Ethernet for high-speed LAN gaming. Designed for style, it boasts six relatively quiet cooling fans, front-access USB and FireWire ports, as well as front-access headphone and microphone jacks. The back-lit badge lets you light up the XPS 600 chassis with your choice of seven colours too, allowing you to choose from ruby, emerald, sapphire, amber, topaz, amethyst and diamond to give your XPS 600 system a personal touch.

The fun doesn't stop here, either. In addition to two top-of-the-line graphics cards, Dell ships a super-stylish black-and-silver 24-inch widescreen display, slimline keyboard and mouse, as well as a 5.1-channel surround sound audio system. Less expensive than its overclocked competitors, but still every ounce the contender, the Dimension XPS 600 has everything you could possibly want from a desktop computer - unless you want a Windows XP Media Center Edition-based PC with TV tuners. The only drawbacks are the lack of built-in Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and the case is cost-cutting plastic opposed to all-metal.

In terms of connectivity and expansion, the Dimension XPS 600 pretty much has it all. Externally accessible are three 5.25-inch bays for CD, CD-RW, DVD or combination drives, a single 3.5-inch floppy drive bay (remember those?), and three internal 3.5-inch bays for hard disk drives. External I/O ports include two DVI and one S-video connectors, two PS/2 ports, two FireWire ports (one front/one back), a whopping eight USB 2.0 ports (two front/six back), front-mounted headphone and mic jacks, and 7.1-channel output (three jacks). For expansion, there are three PCI slots, a single PCIe x1 slot, and two PCIe x16 (graphics) slots. Power comes in the form of a stunning 650-Watt power supply.

The case itself is tool-less and easy to work with, although it still has Dell's annoying 'kickstand' design which means it gets caught on a table edge if you open the case vertically. Thankfully the system is relatively quiet when operating, which came as a big surprise considering the amount of power under the hood. Even with its six 120mm cooling fans, we still bet it's quieter than most DIY PCs with five or six 80mm cooling fans. Indeed, the system can be comfortably used for video or music as it can for gaming.

Performance from the Dimension XPS 600 is exhilarating. By far the fastest machine we've reviewed to date, true x16 SLI performance will open up your gaming to new levels now and in the future. The downside to an SLI-based system is that it's very expensive and there are few games available which capitalise on the technology. The next few months should prove very different, however, and the Dimension XPS 600 is more than ready. [9]

About our tests:
BIOS uses Futuremark's SYSmark 2004 benchmarking application to test the overall performance of desktops. SYSmark 2004 contains scientifically designed workloads that represent the range of activities that an office productivity or Internet content creation worker may encounter. PCMark05 Pro is Futuremark's application-based benchmark for measuring component-level performance. It uses portions of real applications instead of including very large applications or using specifically created code. Futuremark's 3DMark05 Pro runs game tests to provide an accurate overview of a system's gaming performance. In all benchmarks, the higher the score, the faster the computer.