Dell's XPS 720 H2C Hot and Cool

[bgerber]

Overclocking, liquid cooling, and gaming - from Dell? We check out the company's highest-end system to see how the PC giant differentiates itself from... itself.

 

[dean7]

I pretty much checked out as soon as I saw that this thing has a PhysX card. F* that. If they really cared at all about the gamer community would they not read a couple posts in any respectable forum and realize "hey, these people have noticed that the PhysX is BS!"?

Or maybe they do know that but are pushing PhysX for their own reasons. They have REALLY been trying to sell it (every time I walk by the "dell kiosk" in my local mall it's got promo material running on how great the PhysX is and how it will make your gaming experience 1000% better). And why are they selling it so hard? Of course the answer is because they are nice people and want to see PhysX succeed, right?

Anyway, I'm trying to like you, Dell. I really am. But could you try to make it at least a tiny bit easier?

 

[jormm]

idk about you dean7, but if i had the money i would buy this rig in a hart beat reguardless of the PhysX this this looks bad a$$ and it would save me the hassle of learning all this stuff on my own and building it myself pluse they do have go warnity on there stuff my dad buys from them all the time and they are all ways there to help him after he brakes one.

 

[dean7]

Hah. Well, if you really don't care to learn enough to know that the PhysX is BS, you and the PhysX deserve eachother. You should go and buy a Killer NIC as well... I hear those things give you a HUGE increase in FPS! :lol:

 

[jormm]

well that physX is'nt completely BS to me cuz i did look on there site and one of the games i have been thinking of playing "vanguard" is listed so? it wouldnt be pointless to get it...

 

[lostandwandering]

So you read through that entire article and could only comment on the inclusion of a physics card? One that's not even an option anymore for the 720 H2C(XP version at least)? Well done. How can you not like a company just because they are trying to boost sales? Every company does that, just in their own way.

 

[dean7]

No, I'm annoyed by their dogmatic marketing of PhysX, and I was commenting on the fact that promoting the PhysX to try to get a real enthusiast/gamer crown in is like promoting The Inquirer in an attempt to draw in a more intelligent crowd.

And yes, you are so dead on when it comes to the PhysX not being available. Go here:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_720h2c?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

And what's #3 on their list of features?

By the way: that CPU watercooler does look cool. I'll definately give them that. 😀

 

[rhysee]

Well that was a ok , review , didnt show stuff all pics of inside the pc , and its really not comparing apples with apples .. I give that article a 3/10

Come on Tomshardware you used to do better reviews than this!!

 

[lostandwandering]

Ah I found the reason: I tried configuring it in the small business section. In the SB section the PHysX card is not an option*. Funny how that works. I still don't fully understand your anger. The PhysX card is an option, it's not like they are forcing it down your throught. If it came with the system instead of being an option, I would completely agree with you. Please understand this: I am the type of person that likes to know all of the reasoning behind a persons dislike of a product. This was in no way an attack on you and I apologize if my first post offended you in anyway.


*In the SB section, if you select the 720 H2C, the PhysX is listed in the tech specs, but if you to configure it, the options end with the graphics cards.
720 config

 

[warezme]

Overclocking, liquid cooling, and gaming - from Dell? We check out the company's highest-end system to see how the PC giant differentiates itself from... itself.

uh..., no thank you,

I got one of those XPS units for work from my company, same case and design and its HUGE!, the front part is totally cheap plastic, the DVD doors are flimsy the ON/OFF switch feels like its going to break to push it in every morning, the hard drives sound like Tom-Toms in the distance that never stop beating and its hot as heck. Also the motherboard bios settings are completely stripped down, no FSB/voltage steppings, etc. They say you can overclock, but the motherboard says....you can't (really).

The heat may not be such an issue since that one is a core and the one at work is the 3.73Ghz Heatburst model but I figure those dual Ultra's will make up the difference.

I think I would invest my dollar elsewhere.

That XPS is one of those models that look good in a web screen shot and the specs are lovely but the actual product is not

 

[nukemaster]

its not all dead yet

 

[Zorg]

A lot of nice components, and the physx card, take it or leave it. My only problem with this system, other than the cost, is that it is still a proprietary motherboard. What control do you have over the BIOS settings? Nobody knows. Also, the board is BTX form factor, which would limit available options should the existing board take a dump when it is out of warranty. One more thing who's making the PS. Just because it's 1kw doesn't necessarily mean it's any good.

 

[dean7]

I wasn't offended or anything. I am just the type of person that doesn't like to see ignorant people paying for hype. Know what I mean?

The 8800 ultra is a perfect example of this. And that Dell system has 2 of them in SLI. 2 8800 Ultra + PhysX = the biggest bloody ripoff ever. They could have given you 2 8800 GTS/GTX in SLI and spent that extra money on watercooling to give you better value. Know what I mean?

 

[dean7]

BTW, I just noticed that Toim's claimed that the 720 has 8800 Ultras, but the website says SLI'd 8800 GTX. That's a better value than ultras at least. 😀

 

[lostandwandering]

OK. Perfectly understandable. I agree, I hate paying extra for something that will give me little to no advantage.

 

[deadhead_matt]

Well that was a ok , review , didnt show stuff all pics of inside the pc , and its really not comparing apples with apples .. I give that article a 3/10

Come on Tomshardware you used to do better reviews than this!!

what the FU@K is up with tom's reveiws now over priced Dell's

Whats next a reveiw on Cat litter boxes?

How much $$$ did dell give tom's to do this reveiw????????

 

[dean7]

Well that was a ok , review , didnt show stuff all pics of inside the pc , and its really not comparing apples with apples .. I give that article a 3/10

Come on Tomshardware you used to do better reviews than this!!

what the FU@K is up with tom's reveiws now over priced Dell's

Whats next a reveiw on Cat litter boxes?

How much $$$ did dell give tom's to do this reveiw????????
Hahaha. Well, if you ask me this isn't the sign of the apocalypse. The real first horseman of the apocalypse for Tom's is "Tech Darling". :lol:

 

[deadhead_matt]

Well that was a ok , review , didnt show stuff all pics of inside the pc , and its really not comparing apples with apples .. I give that article a 3/10

Come on Tomshardware you used to do better reviews than this!!

what the FU@K is up with tom's reveiws now over priced Dell's

Whats next a reveiw on Cat litter boxes?

How much $$$ did dell give tom's to do this reveiw????????
Hahaha. Well, if you ask me this isn't the sign of the apocalypse. The real first horseman of the apocalypse for Tom's is "Tech Darling". :lol:


WTF i missed this peace of S#$t

Ok first how many girls are on this site

2 how many times can she say cute

I have one word for Tech Darling

And that is

DIE

 

[gators1223]

all i have to say after that is that dell paid a lot for that review and that windows vista SUCKS!!!

 

[polarity]

The offices in F.E.A.R are full of these XPS things.

A world of only Dell computers. Now that is scary.

Nevermind the evil paranormal stuff and clone army, I've got Dells to destroy!

 

[SuperFly03]

NO discussion of the actual cooling? No discussion of the design? Just a "hey look it's pretty and probably fast" with benchies thrown in. I will say the benchies were nicely done and well compared, but the review of the actual build was pure crap.

 

[hashv2f16]

as a personal tradition, i really like taking the crap out of Dell and their tacky systems. the xps 720 is the first dell system i have not looked over and said "RUBBISH!".

among other things, i like the lighting on the case front, and the "overclock this as much as you like attitude". i think this system is a step in the direction of allowing gamers to freely tweak their store-bought systems to how they like.

i still wouldn't buy this, given the chance, all i'm saying is that it's one of the better dells i've seen in my time.

 

[Crashman]

NO discussion of the actual cooling? No discussion of the design? Just a "hey look it's pretty and probably fast" with benchies thrown in. I will say the benchies were nicely done and well compared, but the review of the actual build was pure crap.

This is what happens when work is done by commitee in a short space of time. No time for the writer and tester to communicate in any way that would have allowed the additional content to be added before the deadline date.

 

[americanbrian]

I am just wondering why tom's chose not to compare the dell o/c'd system with a tom's o/c'd system.

Toms is always great at showing the overclock performance of systems, yet they chose not to overclock the high end one for comparison. I bet that tom's could have gotten the same performance with some ease.

Does anyone remember the 5Ghz overclock feature?

 

[yakyb]

im also a litte appalled that they chose not to OC the high end system.

plus i would of liked to see a price /performance graph against all the different benchmarks

also why not try to build the exact same system that dell proposed yourself see how much it costs.

so many things left untouched


oh and Whats wrong with Vista i think this is a good advert for vista as a mere 10% drop accross the board (gaming excluding fear which is opengl IIRC) is not bad at all. besides we all (well mostly) use Lcds which are limited to 60 fps anyway and unless you go over 2048x1536 outdoors in oblivion you'll be fine.


edit comparing the other benches of Vista it would appear that the software manufacturers have some way to go for example pcmark 05 was in no way designed for vista id love to see a comparison of pc mark 07 (or whatever) vista vs XP. also the video encoding part of the article says

we did not have time to get latest version and perform standard test

then it is not a valid F@@@ing benchmark. whats the difference in not using latest software and not using latest drivers?
AFAIK nothing its like saying Vista showed a 50% decrease in games performance but we only used 2 months old drivers as we couldnt be bothered to spend 5 mins getting the latest ones

Please review your benchmarks THG