Folks who have read Direct2Dell pretty regularly know I'm a desktop guy. Don't get meet wrong, mobile devices definitely have their place—especially as smartphones and devices like the soon-to-come Dell Streak show more and more capability. And down the road, it looks like true HD media streaming and cloud storage will have their day. But for now, there's just something about the power and expandability that a good desktop brings to the table.
And that brings me to the point of my post. You might have already seen some of the details in places like SlashGear, but late last week we introduced the Studio XPS 9100. It's a desktop that has power and expandability to burn. For starters, we support Intel's latest i7 processors—all the way up to their six-core i7 Extreme processors. It also supports up to 24GB of RAM in six DDR3 DIMM slots. If you need that kind of power, you're dealing with true HD video editing, animation, or working with multi-layer images from your digital SLR. Not bad for a starting price under a thousand bucks.
Oh, and the base config comes with a 525-watt power supply—plenty enough to handle a up to an ATI 5970 graphics card that has 2GB RAM, just in case you have a need. It can accommodate up to 4TB of internal storage so even if you're storing lots of HD video, it will keep you in business for a long time to come. It also supports 8 USB 2.0 slots—3 on the top of the chassis (see below), 1 in front and 4 more on the back.
Update from Lionel: Thanks to user rockytruelyrocks and others who correctly pointed out that the ATI 5970 graphics card option will require more than the base 525W power supply, and that I should have referred to the sound card option as the Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium. Lastly, just further clarify, USB 3.0 support requires a PCIe x1 card. I've corrected each in this post.
And just in case you're a customer who likes multimedia performance (and let's face it—if your reading about this kind of a desktop, you probably are), then you want to know that the Studio XPS 9100 supports all the bells and whistles there too. You can configure it with an external HD TV tuner card, a re-writable Blu-ray disc player, and Sound Blaster's X-Fi Titanium sound card. The 19-in-1 card reader is easily accessible at the top of the machine.
Design-wise, it also doesn't disappoint. It features a smooth white chassis with orange and black accents that make it look pretty slick for such a beast. Beyond the good looks, it's functional as well. The chassis design makes it very easy to access internal components whether you're adding a second hard drive or adding a PCIe x1 card for USB 3.0 support.
Bottom line, if you're the kind of person that relishes what you can accomplish with a high-end desktop, the Studio XPS 9100 is the kind of machine that's made for you.
