Do people actually buy Dell XPS's?

Dell's XPS computers are surprisingly good - you can often get dells on sale, they are often more reasonably priced than computers like Alienwares or customs, and Dell's XPS support is second to none. Honestly, they're fairly high on my list of good brands to buy if you want a prebuilt performance system. The XPS laptops are nice too - I'm not a fan of the 1730, but the 1530 and 1330 are excellent looking machines for moderate power in a light package.

Oh, and that article is definitely incorrect - it was published over 6 months ago, yet dell now has an XPS with the Core i7.
 
You will also find that Alienware is Dell :) But for an of the shelf high spec machine there pretty good all in one package. If you really want the best custom package then theres the 'build it yourself' option.
 



No. they are thrown at people out the back of a pickup truck...