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Dell Unleashes the XPS 420 Desktop to Polite Applause
Posted by Sean Fallon at 11:05 AM on October 24, 2007
It appears that Dell is making an attempt to take on the likes of HP and Apple with the release of the XPS 420 —a rig focused on the multimedia enthusiast. Features include: Intel Core 2 Duo or Extreme processors, your choice of ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards, a max of 1TB storage, 1-4 GB of Dual DDR2 SDRAM, a 20-inch LCD monitor, and Xcelerator technology —which makes converting video quick and easy. The XPS 420 also comes bundled with Adobe Systems Elements Studio, which includes Photoshop Elements 6, Premiere Elements 4, and Soundbooth CS3. As you might have guessed the XPS 420 won't come cheap, regardless of the options you choose. Prices range from $1500 to $2,500. [Dell via Information Week]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
CaliforniaCajun
Posted 5:45 PM 24/10/07
NIce machines cost a lot of money? Imagine that?
CaliforniaCajun
kingbob337
Posted 2:27 PM 24/10/07
I think the deal with this computer is that it as sensors that only let you use it if your high.
kingbob337
Digitele
Posted 11:16 AM 24/10/07
@photophile: "Only 4gb of RAM max? For serious video editing? That blows."
Ho hum, well I suggest that you change your editing software! I work in the industry for a company that produce broadcast and post/D.I. (Digital Intermediate) editing software and *none* of our products *require* that amount of memory in order to achieve an acceptable level of performance. As our kit is used by both Lucas and Jackson and I presume that you are working on something a little downscale from their efforts you might like to ask why you need so much memory...
Digitele
photophile
Posted 12:02 AM 24/10/07
Only 4gb of RAM max? For serious video editing? That blows.
photophile
LagunaSol
Posted 11:31 PM 23/10/07
Holy cow that thing is ugly. Looks like one of those no-name cases you get at PC Club.
LagunaSol
banmojo
Posted 11:28 PM 23/10/07
@albokay: heh heh . heh heh . '420' . I get it. heh heh heh.
banmojo
derelikt
Posted 11:26 PM 23/10/07
Oh, and @albokay: i think i lol'd a little at my desk just now. you win.
derelikt
derelikt
Posted 11:24 PM 23/10/07
@SimianJones: Did you finish reading the sentence? "a rig focused on the multimedia enthusiast."
Those numbers you so conveniently quoted are total marketshare numbers... ie, including everything from corporate purchases to Grandma's New Web Machine.
Do you work in any form of multimedia job? I use both Macs and PC's extensively in the work that I do, and trust me... Macs have a very strong presence in this industry.
Maybe not more than PC's as a whole... but it could easily be more than Dell specifically.
derelikt
SimianJones
Posted 10:23 PM 23/10/07
I'm not sure I understand this line, "It appears that Dell is making an attempt (as futile as it may be) to take on the likes of HP and Apple with the release of the XPS 420..."
Last I checked Dell was actually the market leader at something like 28% market share, HP at 24% and Apple at 6%. While I'm more a HP fan these days it seems like it's HP and Apple that are taking on Dell instead while Dell is trying to stay on top.
SimianJones
erockO
Posted 10:22 PM 23/10/07
@albokay: yeah 420 is no accident here lol
erockO
tin
Posted 10:18 PM 23/10/07
Pretty nice looking, i also like the accelerator, cause i convert alot of video for my ipod touch
tin
albokay
Posted 10:12 PM 23/10/07
I hear the big thing with this is there is a fake hard drive in it where you can hide your weed.
albokay
atomicafro
Posted 10:08 PM 23/10/07
When you click on the link it's pretty clear that they make the hard-sell with Vista. You could probably get XP if you contacted them on the phone or email, etc. but they certainly don't make it a selling point. Which is dumb because unless someone knows the difference between XP and Vista (and why to choose the older OS over the newer one), and how to tweak XP in the way that makes it suitable for media production the end result will be a machine with lower performance and less hardware support than Mac Pros (or performance tweaked XP machines that are custom built from smaller vendors)... Dumb move Dell.
atomicafro
PuckOTG22
Posted 10:06 PM 23/10/07
I believe what you are seeing there is either Cool Edit (which I think is now Adobe Audition) or what they mentioned in the article - Soundbooth. It looks a lot like Audition though - but given Soundbooth is mentioned in the article I'd guess that is what it probably is.
And for anyone who wants to have the best of 'both worlds' - if you get Vista Pro or Vista Ultimate - you get downgrade rights to XP. So, you can 'downgrade' to XP and when you feel comfortable - upgrade to Vista. And, if I'm not mistaken (which I may be) Dell is offering XP on most all their machines at this point. I don't know about this one but the 720 you could get it on and all the Inspiron Desktops too. But, who knows, right?
But yeah, you can still downgrade the OS if you like the machine for no additional money. It'll just cost a small amount of time to run the downgrade.
PuckOTG22
espire
Posted 9:53 PM 23/10/07
@atomicafro:
The screenshot in the image looks like XP to me, is it not?
espire
atomicafro
Posted 9:44 PM 23/10/07
Sorry, without a WinXP option this is NOT a pro-grade media solution. Vista hasn't gotten to the point with driver support, stability, and performance that XP has. PC media pros are better off with dedicated DAW or video-editing machines with WinXP Pro from smaller vendors like Rain.
[www.rainrecording.com]
Dell's offering is alot of flash but not much bang without XP out of the box. Period.
atomicafro
Spyrojoe
Posted 9:23 PM 23/10/07
Pretty slick looking machine, but I'll hang on to my Mac for Logic's sake. (The audio editing program, not the line of thinking.)
Spyrojoe