Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Great hardware, superb performance.

Thumbs Down:

Expensive, no Blu-ray drive, no over clocking, no space for extra graphic card.

Inside the Trunk:

Mouse, Cabinet, Keyboard.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Intel CORE I5 750 / 2.66 GHz Quad Core, Intel P55 Express-based motherboard, 8 GB DDR3 SD RAM, 1 TB HDD (7200 RPM) 16X DVD±RW, Graphics -  nVidia GeForce GTX260 1792MB GDDR3, OS Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, Integrated 7.1 channel High Definition Audio, Integrated 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet LAN on system board.

19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card, MiniSD, Hi-Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC) class2, Hi-Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC) class4, Hi-Capacity Secure Digital (SDHC) class6, Multi Media Card (MMC), RS Multimedia Card (RS-MMC), Multimedia Card Plus (MMC+), Multimedia card Mobile, Memory Stick (MS), Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO), Memory Stick PRO Duo, Memory Stick Micro, Compact Flash I, Compact Flash II, Smart Media Card (SM), xD Picture Card (xD), Micro Drive (MD)

Expansion Slots- PCI: 1 slot, PCIe x1: 2 slots, PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 slot.

Razzle Dazzle:

Dell Studio XPS 8000 cabinet isn’t slim looking, looks have been let go to make room for good performance. However the cabinet does look good and the accessibility for USB ports is at the top rather than the standard place which is below the optical drive. This will be good for places where the cabinet is kept below the monitor, on the floor. If the cabinet is kept in front of the monitor then you will have to stand to access these ports. The face of the cabinet is black, rest all is white, so is the mouse but the keyboard is black colored. When you purchase a LCD (the computer doesn’t come with one) make sure supports the graphics card well and then look for something that will compliment the looks of the cabinet and mouse.

Inside Dope:

This computer is not for your average user. This is a gaming beast! Yes!  A big hard disk, a great graphics card and a fast processor all under one roof!

We had HP-Pavilion-Slimline-s5220y for review before this and we couldn’t stop staring at the slim cabinet. This one doesn’t have a slim cabinet but the performance will surely make you drool. However, the cabinet is smaller than the XPS 9000 series of desktops

Inside the box there 1 TB hard drive for you to store all your games on the laptop. The graphics card included is also a fast one – nVidia GeForce GTX260 1792MB GDDR3, this card is certain to take the most demanding games and you can play games with all advanced settings unleashed.

The 2.66 GHz Quad Core and 8 GB DDR3 RAM will make sure your games don’t stutter and experience is smooth. Dell has taken all the efforts it can from their end to make this the best gaming desktop and they haven’t cared a bit to keep the price low. End result is indeed a good gaming computer but high price.

Inclusion of a Blu-ray drive would have been better on this computer. With 1 TB drive you can sure store all the movies and with a good graphic card that this computer has you can also enjoy full HD content due to the excellent graphics card.

For upgrading the computer Dell has plenty of options, there is a bay for second hard drive, but you probably wont need it owing to the one TB hard drive space. There is a space for another optical drive, in which you might want to fit in a Blu-ray drive. There is a spare PCI 1x slot but no slot for graphics card and no extra space for RAM also.

Though a good and very fast gaming computer, Dell XPS 8000 isn’t the best in the market but certainly is good on power consumption. We found that Dell XPS 8000 is easy of power consumption that other products in this category in the market.

Behind the cabinet there is a pair of DVI ports and you get a single S/PDIF audio output and 7.1 analog audio output array through the motherboard. Along with it there are ports of FireWire 400, eSATA and four USB 2.0 ports for external storage and other devices. Ethernet port is included for you to connect on LAN. On the face of the cabinet there is a media card reader, a pair of 2.0 USB ports and head phone and microphone jacks

Nitty Gritty:

Absence of a Blu-ray drive dampens the great processor-graphic card-RAM combination. But this is good computer for gaming. Buy it if you have a big wallet.

This one would be launched at the Tokyo game show. An official from Dell claimed on the company’s Facebook page that Alienware will surely invade the Tokyo Game show this year. Even our attempts to contact Dell turned out to be futile with Dell taking the ‘no comments’ stance.

We here at techsoft are waiting with bated breath to see what exactly is in store and we ll keep you posted on the latest developments on this front.

Thumbs up: Excellent ballistic armor, tactile and backlit keyboard, vibrant screen, brilliant performance.

Thumbs down: Poor battery life, noisy fan.

THE WHIZ-KID SPEAKS: Thinking about a rugged notebook which can withstand Mother nature’s abusive ways, then its this one for sure. Where most of the companies nowadays sacrifice mere aesthetics in the name of ruggedness this one simply stands out. This one is perfect for the field worker both design and performance wise.

Razzle-Dazzle: When road warriors move around with the E6400 XFR with them, I can assure that they’d look their part. Its got the “you better don’t mess around with me” look right on its face. Its grayish black lid has XFR written on the side of the lid. Its got an extremely sturdy Ballistic Armor shell which could easily match upto the military standards and possibly even surpass it. the entire chassis is made up of  PR-481 and it also has Primoseal to protect the ports from water, DirectVue for screen protection and QuadCool to avoid any instances of overheating and al of this put together forms the Ballistic armor.

There is a rubber bumper on both sides to cushion it in case  the user drops it . Further to complete the macho look the zinc hinges are of  silver colour and the lid is kept in place when its shut with an aluminium latch.

This one measures  13.9 x 11.5 x 2.2 inches and weighs 9.0 pounds which means that it cant be shoved into the backpack. You ll need to carry it with the help of the handle in the front. Its got a 14.1 inch display with a resolution of  1280 x 800 pixels and is pleasantly bright and vibrant. It comes loaded with a light sensor which adjusts the screen and the keyboard according to the surrounding brightness which I found to be a bit hypersensitive and fortunately it could be disabled.

Coming to the keyboard… this one is a full sized keyboard and unlike the rest of the keyboard the keys have a nice smooth feel to it. And for all those who want to use it for typing in darkrooms the keyboard has backlighting in this one which can be automatically enabled and disabled. Below the keyboard is the touchpad is the 2.6 x 1.5-inch touchpad, which offers negligible friction and the buttons below it are covered with soft rubber but that doesn’t give it the mushy kind of a feel.

Inside Dope: The audio of this one was decent enough to be heard in a small room. There was some echo kind of an effect which surely was because of the bulky interiors. The VGA webcam was efficient enough during voice calls made through Skype with a bit of blurring while waving of hands. Otherwise the images were pretty much clear.

This meets the MIL-STD-810F which means that this one can be dropped from heights of  48 inches, withstand 5.8 inches of water blown at 70 miles per hour for 30 minutes; and operate in temperatures from -20 to 145 degrees Fahrenheit.

Its got a Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M graphics chip which is more than enough for the kind of graphics that you would want to use on a rugged laptop. Anyways this isn’t a gaming laptop.

The XFR was a bit noisy, like the fan was turning constantly. The system was pretty much cool at about 90 degree Fahrenheit. Powered with a 2.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P9600 processor and 4GB of RAM this one did pretty well in our overall system test surpassing the category average scores. It took around 65 seconds to boot the Windows Vista business version.

The unit comes loaded with Bluetooth 2.1 to easily connect peripherals like the keyboard and the mouse.  Video streaming from Hulu was also pretty smooth enough with hardly any stuttering.

Going to the ruggedness of the XFR… we dropped it from a height of 4 feet for almost ten times. Still the XFR hardly faced any problems hitting back into action. Even with splashed with 8-ounce of water, the water just slided down and the XFR continued to function normally. When under steady drizzle, the machine still continued to function properly but the droplets on the screen were a bit distracting.

I surely expected more in terms of battery life when it comes to laptops which are going to be away from the power outlets most of the time. This one lasted for 3 hours and 8 minutes on our battery tests which is quite less for this category. However a 12 cell battery can be added but that would cost you $449 extra.

Nitty- Gritty: This one surely the best in the category of rugged laptops and would be better if the battery life could be extended somehow. Anyways if your looking out for a durable laptop for tough outdoor use then is definitely the one.

And that’s definitely not where the list ends. This one has an Nvidia GeForce GTS 240 Graphics Card and this coupled with the Core i7, it’s surely something worth placing your bets on. This brings along with it a spectacular gaming experience with 3D graphics. According to the makers, the curves that this one offers haven’t been put up there just for the heck of it. Apparently everything out there on display has been built for convenience and endurance. With all these features it already has many gamers going gaga over it.

This one could be yours for £799 without the monitor and if you want the whole assembled version it could cost you around £1,029.