Dell’s XPS series of desktop PCs has long been targeted towards the PC gamer. Their XPS 400 model was introduced as a more affordable alternative to the consumer over their high end gaming systems, but it lacked much of performance compared to AMD based PCs when it came to gaming. Now Dell has updated the system to the XPS 410 by introducing the new Core 2 Duo processor. Find out in my review how this updated system fares.

The XPS 410 is an upgrade of the older 400 model by replacing the aging Pentium D series with the new Core 2 Duo processors. Even the low end E6300 with half the cache of higher rated models can outperform the older Pentium D especially in PC gaming. With a full gigabyte of memory included, it should be able to run most programs without too many memory swap slowdowns.

Storage wise the XPS410 is quite good. It uses a large 320GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive that provides plenty of space for storing programs and data. The system includes both a 16x DVD+/-RW dual layer DVD burner for recording music, movie or data CDs and DVDs and a 16x DVD-ROM drive for simple playback.

Since the XPS 410 is geared towards gaming, graphics are important but it is a mixed bag. The GeForce 7300LE graphics core is a step up from integrated graphics cores, but it’s reliance on system RAM and lower clock speeds make it less suited for high resolution PC gaming. On the other hand, Dell includes their superb 2007FPW wide screen LCD monitor in the package.

Review By Cnet

The Dell XPS 410 is housed in the same glossy white BTX case as the XPS 400. It features a silver front bezel and black drive-bay covers. The midtower design is inoffensive enough to fit in with home office or den decor, but it will look out of place mixed in with your home-entertainment components. A DVD burner and a DVD-ROM drive occupy the full-size external drive bays, and one of the two 3.5-inch bays contains a multiformat card reader. Two USB 2.0 ports, a FireWire port, and headphone and microphone jacks are mounted below the drive bays.

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Review By Pcworld

This Dell also notched above-average gaming performance: Using an nVidia 7900GS-based graphics card containing 256MB of graphics RAM, the system clocked an impressive 198 frames per second in Unreal Tournament at 1280-by-1024-pixel resolution, the best score we’ve seen for a single-GPU system.

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