Dell's Studio XPS to get major upgrades--inside and out
Dell's Studio XPS was one of the first desktops to offer Intel's Core i7 processor (aka Nehalem) at prices starting below $1,000. Now it looks like Dell may be close to releasing a second Studio XPS desktop with a bolder design and higher-end configurations to match the Core i7's performance.
According to a product page on Dell's site, the new Studio XPS 435 can be configured with up to 24GB of memory, the ATI Radeon HD 4870 with 1GB, as much as 4.5TB of storage using three drive bays and Blu-ray. The current Studio XPS tops out at 12GB and the ATI Radeon HD 4850 with 512MB, though it already offers Blu-ray and storage options--up to 1.28TB--that would meet the needs of the vast majority of users. The Studio XPS 435's redesigned, sloped case looks great, however, and the media tray on top is a useful addition, but didn't HP come up with that feature first?
No word from Dell yet on the pricing or availability. Given that Dell's gaming-oriented XPS 730x currently starts at $1,799 with the 2.66GHz Core i7-920, 3GB of memory, Nvidia GeForce 9800GT graphics with 512MB, a 500GB drive and a DVD burner, top-of-the-line configurations of the Studio XPS 435 should be pretty pricey.
[via Engadget]