Dell rides the Dragon with new XPS 625 gaming PC

Even if the case lighting caused consternation for some, we were fans of Dell's XPS 630 gaming desktop, which delivered solid bang-for-the-buck in a sub-$2,000 PC. With this morning's announcement of the XPS 625, Dell once again sets its sights on the midrange gamer. Starting at $999, this configurable PC uses all AMD components, including an option for multiple graphics cards.

One of the highlights of this system is that of the four AMD CPUs available, all are so-called "Black Edition" chips, AMD's term for processors with unlocked clock-speed settings. That means overclockers have leeway to ramp up the clock speeds, and gain more performance for no extra cost.

The new Dell XPS 625 has all AMD hardware under the hood

(Credit: Dell)

Dell also advertises that the XPS 625 supports AMD's new Dragon platform, which essentially means it uses one of AMD's new Phenom II X4 quad-core processors, an ATI Radeon HD 4800-series graphics card, as well as AMD's multiple-graphics-cards-capable 790 motherboard chipset. Dragon also gets you a handful of miniapplications for managing your overclocking settings through Windows, as well as tweaking your system software for improved game performance.

Among its other specs, the XPS 625 comes standard with 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium, and you get options for up to 8GB of RAM, Blu-ray, and up to 1.5TB of hard drive space. Keep in mind that because it uses AMD's current Phenom II chips and their Socket AM2+ motherboards, the XPS 625 won't support faster DDR3 RAM, at least at launch. We have no word from Dell as to whether it intends to move to the DDR3-capable Socket AM3 motherboards when they ship early this year (according to AMD).

The XPS 625 also uses the same case as the XPS 630, a tidy, well-designed full tower system, but it has changed the case lighting. As with other Dell gaming PCs, Dell has adopted the AlienFX lighting scheme developed by its Alienware subsidiary. We've been fans of AlienFX for a year or two now, as it lets you assign case lighting schemes to system events; imagine your case lights turning blue when you get a new e-mail, for example. Hopefully this move will quell any lingering fear of the old lighting system.

Dell also tells us that the XPS 625 will be available to order today from Dell.com.

Image updated.

[CDROM2GO]

The specs on this machine sound good, but the design leaves a lot to be desired. It looks like the Dodge Caliber of computers! Yikes!

[GardenLobster]

You can always change cases. Especially if you're going to overclock it - you need a closed, sealed environment for cooking oil mods. I really like the option of an unlocked processor. With a little more work you can get a lot more bang for your buck. Just throw the components in a new case - sealed plexiglass.

[Kalam1ty]

I'm confused. It's supposedly an AMD machine, but it has an Intel sticker on it?

[rhbrown]

Ha. I'll confess to having used old art in posts for new systems with identical cases, and for a second I was afraid that's what had happened here. But just checked the email Dell sent me and, as the credit says, this one did indeed come direct from Round Rock. Oops.

[rhbrown]

Dell sent us a new image, which I added for the sake of preventing confusion, but for those who didn't see the original, it was in fact a Dell-supplied picture of the XPS 600-series chassis with an Intel badge on it. Not exactly what you'd expect to find on an all-AMD desktop.

[spectator1]

This is really the Cadillac of high end gaming systems. I had the opportunity to break it down while at the Dell campus and try something on it in a training class it?s impressive

and surprisingly quite. I have always like Dell products since I was on the Dell development team years agao, and I have some Dell servers from the Power Edge line that does not miss a beat.

[Editor's note: Advertisement deleted]

[skillingssucks]

"This is really the Cadillac of high end gaming systems"
You've got to be kidding? Right?

[jhstoneca]

I think that by "Cadillac" he means poorly built, prone to failure and depreciates rapidly. Core i7 systems cruch the new Dragon chips in real world benchmarking and you can get a Dell i7 system with an ATI 4850 for $999 at Microcenter. Why spend the same money on an inferior build?

[Rmaster348]

I disagree with poorly built and prone to faliure.
Anyway, Dell's biggest failure is when they make gaming machine's they always fall short. Like No monitor and No mouse HUH! Who games without a mouse? To have this machine properly set up as a decent gaming rig it will cost you $3428. Midrange yeah right!