Dell Inspiron XPS II

The Inspiron XPS Generation 2 is Dell's attempt to crack the burgeoning market for gaming notebooks. Dell has certainly pushed the boat out when it comes to design, and the XPS has very distinctive looks.

Under the hood sits a 2.13GHz Pentium M processor, with 1GB of 533MHz Ram and a 256MB Nvidia Geforce Go 6800 Ultra.

The 6800 Ultra helped the XPS to a score of 11,198 in 3Dmark03 and 4,899 in 3Dmark05. In terms of graphics power, this is the fastest notebook we've ever seen, but it let itself down in performance elsewhere with a Sysmark 2004 SE score of just 156.

While this isn't bad for a Pentium M machine, it holds the notebook back a bit. This is largely due to Dell's use of the Pentium M, rather than the Pentium 4 favoured by most gaming notebook manufacturers.

It does have advantages in power consumption and generated heat, as the notebook remains fairly cool throughout, whereas P4s can become disturbingly hot.

The XPS weighs 4kg, which is about average for gaming notebooks, and its design makes it easy, if heavy, to carry around. Several lights adorn the case, the colour of which can be changed using a supplied utility.

The only problem with the XPS is the price. At over £2,500 it overshoots most budgets. Being a Dell, you can configure it on the website before buying and bring the price down if you remove certain options, but of course you'll lose out on performance.

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