Dell quad-core XPS 710

Dell XPS 710

Dell will be one of the first OEMs with an Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 system available at launch. They sent over an XPS 710 system so we could check out their quad-core platform.

Dell’s next XPS system is built largely on its predecessor. Dell uses the same chassis, motherboard, and cooling, that they first introduced in the XPS 700 earlier this year. This means you’ll get an nForce 590 SLI motherboard with dual PCI Express graphics slots, four DIMMs, as well as three PCI slots. Interestingly enough, this is the same motherboard Dell uses for the Radeon X1950 XTX CrossFire cards.

The system Dell sent over is state-of-the-art. Not only did Dell include Intel’s Core 2 Extreme QX6700 CPU, they also outfitted the system with two GeForce 7950 GX2 cards for Quad SLI, 2GB of DDR2 memory, Creative X-Fi audio, and three hard drives for a total of one terabyte of storage!

The most distinctive part about the Dell system is how it’s built. The system case is built like a vault! This is easily one of the heaviest cases we’ve ever handled. You won’t want to haul the XPS 710 to a LAN party, but its case is certainly built to take punishment. The system itself relies on Intel’s BTX form factor, so the motherboard itself is oriented on the opposite end of the case and the video cards are mounted up instead of down, we found that removing expansion cards was a bit more of a hassle this way, but one look at the layout of Dell’s chassis makes it all worth it if you’re a cooling aficionado:

Inside the XPS 710

Quad-core CPU and Quad SLI inside!

These fans do the bulk of the cooling work

We swapped out the stock Quad SLI cards with an X1950 XTX for testing

Top of the CPU heatsink

Massive heatsink

As you can see, Dell’s chassis on the XPS 710 is designed to act as part of the system’s cooling. The front of the case is basically one large vent for the system fan, which is designed to suck in cool air from the front of the case, where it’s then blown across the graphics card/sound card, before it exits out the back of the case. The CPU has its own ducted cooling enclosure which acts in a similar fashion: cool air comes in from the front, and goes out the back. The North Bridge and South Bridge of the system chipset are passively cooled by large aluminum heatsinks. Considering the amount of heat NVIDIA’s nForce 590 chipset puts out, it’s pretty remarkable that Dell is able to get by with just aluminum heatsinks in our opinion.

The Dell GeForce 7950 GX2 card

Another shot of the GX2 card

You can remove the expansion cards without tools

Besides the retention mechanism on the graphics slot, Dell uses two additional methods to keep the graphics card in place. A large external retention mechanism which sits at the bottom of the case and can be removed, and a third clip which attaches to the end of the graphics card to hold the card in place. Once everything is hooked up properly, your graphics card isn’t going anywhere, trust us, we tested it.

One terabyte worth of storage here

Looking higher up in the case, you’ll find four dedicated 3.5” drive bays for hard drives. The drives sit on rails, so they’re easily removable, and the SATA cables are tied down to ensure good airflow within the case. Dell also provides additional 5.25” and 3.5” drive bays on the front of the chassis in case you need additional bays for storage. These drive bays hide behind case doors like you’d see on a small form factor system.

It’s a nice touch, but in practice we found that the eject button built in to the case is a little hard to reach once the optical drive is opened.



At the top of the system is a 1 kilowatt power supply unit. That’s right, we said one kilowatt! That’s 1000 watts of power on tap for the most power-hungry hardware imaginable.

We’ve got a lot more to say about Dell’s new XPS 710 system, but we’ll save those comments for an official review to come later. Already though we’re highly impressed by the system Dell has put together, it’s powerful, fast, and best of all it runs extremely quietly. If you recall, earlier this year we took a brief look at a Quad-SLI system from Alienware, the liquid-cooled ALX. After seeing both up close, let’s just say that you Alienware fans who’ve dismissed Dell’s XPS line shouldn’t rush to judgment. Dell’s put together a pretty good system with their XPS 700 series. The XPS 710 even provides overclocking options inside BIOS for enthusiasts, in fact with a couple of keystrokes we overclocked the XPS 710 to 3.2GHz!

Dell XPS 710 running at 3.2GHz!

Inside the Dell BIOS

3.2GHz or bust!

Although obviously you’ll void the warranty if you choose to overclock.

Dell will begin taking orders for the XPS 710 when the Core 2 Extreme QX6700 launches on Nov 14th. While the XPS 700 line got off to a rough start due to availability issues, most of those snags have now been resolved based on end user reports. The XPS 710 is essentially based on the same hardware -- the only difference is the new CPU -- so hopefully availability won't be an issue for Dell's latest XPS PC.