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Dell Inspiron XPS Notebook

Gaming on a notebook is not what it used to be, and thank goodness for that! Dell's Inspiron XPS, sporting the ATI Radeon Mobility 9700, is one of the first true desktop replacements in our experience that puts gaming on a pedestal.

Introduction

The world of hardware is in an ever-changing state. In the last year or so we've seen desktop PCs getting smaller, and we've seen notebook PCs getting much smaller as the thin and light category of the on-the-go machine has become a lifestyle for some. Somewhere in between, the DeskTop Replacement, or DTR as they have come to be called, has started to fill its own niche.

Many folks that aren't jetting across country on airplanes need a bit of mobility, too. The category of thin and light notebooks have been a boon for those in a position to have to carry them about all the time. Still many folks want some mobility simply for use between office and home. The DTR is starting to fill this space. Leave work, and want to take some work with youNULL Now just take the entire system with you and get access to everything you had sitting on your desktop at work. The DTR is now bringing the power of desktop computing to the mobile sector.

Now DTRs are nothing extremely new as we have seen this market segment grow greatly in the last year. When we start seeing it impact the gaming side of things is when we start to get interested. While it has not been a HardOCP focus in the past, we have been peeking at mobile technology for quite some time now and seeing some really great things.

So What's New?

As linked above, many of you know that there have been very strong graphics technologies in the mobile market for the last couple of years. But we are about to be see big changes from both ATI and NVIDIA as they are both moving forward with redefining exactly how graphics are put into our notebooks.

One of the goals of both companies is to bring upgradable graphics to your notebook. And while that looks to be an exploding market segment, there are some companies that are doing that right now.

Enter Dell's DTR gaming laptop.

Dell Inspiron XPS

This is what Dell has to say about their XPS in notebook form.

Introducing the new Inspiron XPS. A true desktop replacement notebook with high performance Intel Pentium 4 processors featuring Hyper-Threading Technology, stunning 15.4" Wide Aspect displays, and top of the line graphics performance. The Inspiron XPS is built to handle the most demanding applications in a portable form factor. Created for the power user who demands high-end performance, the Inspiron XPS brings notebook computing to a whole new level.

And for the most part, Dell's description is dead on the money. Our test unit holds a 3.4GHz Pentium 4, 2GB of DDR400 Ram tucked onto an i865PE motherboard. The screen is one of the most beautiful LCDs we have ever seen and will run a very workable 1920x1200 resolution desktop.

Obviously you are not going to be hurdling old ladies in the airport with this massive unit and accompanying power supply. Then again this is not what a DTR is designed for.

A DTR is designed to bring to you all the heavy hitting features of a true desktop PC while also giving you some of the advantages of mobile computing.

Desktop Apps / Real World Experience

Before we get to the gaming, let's talk about using this unit in a benchmark environment. Running benchmark numbers such as SysMark2004, our notebook pulled in a little behind a 3.2GHz i875PE desktop system with comparable features. This is mostly due to I/O differences pointing to the hard drive. Still, our Inspiron XPS pulls within 10% of a "real" desktop computer.

As you know though, benchmarks, while needed to some extent, often do not tell the whole story. So I took the Dell Inspiron XPS and loaded up all my normally needed software that I use on a daily basis, scooted over my keyboard and sat the XPS down in its place. Yes, I used the XPS as my primary computer for three days. The first thing I noticed is that my hands were very much at home on the keyboard and I have already mentioned just how stunning the colors and clarity of the monitor are.

To put it succinctly, the Inspiron XPS could handle everything just as well as my desktop 3.2GHz system would, outside of triple monitor support. In fact, the only problem I had with the XPS was a driver glitch that would not let me run a secondary display at the proper refresh rate. Still, the second display was very usable. Just to see how much we could slow the XPS down, we went to encode DVD movies to DivX files and still the machine never hiccupped while also pulling the weight of the other programs. I was truly able to work with 6 to 8 programs open, 15 to 20 windows open, while encoding a DivX movie and it was smooth as could be. Considering some desktop computers are not up to that task, I would say the Dell Inspiron XPS fits into the "DTR" category quite well.