Dell XPS 720HC Over-Overclocked, Orders Canceled

Dell’s been hotrodding its quad core desktops, overclocking the hell out of Intel’s dual Core 2 Extreme processors and stuffing in a couple of monster NVIDIA graphics cards just for fun. But suddenly, it appears that the party’s over for the fastest one, with Dell stopping all orders for the $5,939 XPS 720HC “bin +3″ edition that overclocked Intel’s QX6800 Extreme processor way faster than its baseline 2.93GHz clock speed, all the way up to 3.73GHz. Dell management had an explanation on its company blog.

Lionel Menchaca, Dell’s Digital Media Manager, wrote:

“We apologize for having to do this, truth is that we do not have a line of sight to enough supply of QX6800 processors that can tolerate the Bin+3 overclocking. Since it already runs at a 2.93GHz speed, there’s a limited headroom to overclock. It just comes down to physics—a design can only tolerate so much voltage. Note that we are still offering the QX6800 Extreme Edition on the air-cooled XPS 720 Red system running at a lower clock speed of Bin+1 or (3.2GHz).

Dell’s also still offering the QX6800 chips in machines at Bin +2, or 3.46GHz. That’s still some respectable overclocking, but little solace for those who have already ordered the Bin +3 machines. They’re being asked to cancel those orders and re-order a Bin +2 machine. As some consolation, Dell is offering to upgrade those customers’ shipping to Next Day status. [Direct2Dell, via PC World]