Dell goes again for the high-end computer desktop market with its next generation of XPS systems and this time the new model is called the XPS 420. Larger, better equipped with state of the art computer hardware components, and offering top of the line quality and performance in all kinds of application from video encoding to the latest 3D games, the Dell XPS 420 desktop is going to make a big splash on the gamers market for sure.

Apart from the every day features that are essential for all computers, be them entry level or intended for the enthusiasts market, the Dell XPS 420 model offers a hardware MPEG-4 video encoder and Microsoft's SideShow display up top, for easily viewing slide shows with your favorite pictures. In the computing power department, the XPS 420 can be equipped with a variety of high end processors made by Intel. Users may choose their desired CPU based on their budget or desired performance and so there are available the following options ranging from the every day Core 2 Duo to the Extreme or even Quad CPU models that are coming with no less that 8MB of second level cache memory.

Based on the next generation of high-end Intel chipset, the XPS 420 sports a mainboard centered around the Intel X38 Express chipset with integrated support for up to 8Gb of DDR2 system memory with a running frequency of 800MHz. For best possible performance in the storage department, Dell included hard disk drives featuring the latest Serial ATA II interface that can be stacked in RAID arrays with 0 or 1 configurations.

Just like all modern day computer systems that are performance-centered on the graphics department, the Dell XPS 420 desktop computer features multiple PCI Express x16 compatible slots for easily setting up a multi graphics cards solution based on either ATI's CrossFire of Nvidia's SLI technology. Connectivity issues are addressed by the presence of two front high-speed USB ports as well as six placed on the rear of the case and two internal USB ports. Apart from these, two FireWire 1394 high speed ports are also present as well as one eSATA interface for interacting with external storage devices. In order to make it easy to use headphones, the XPS 420 comes with frontal ports too.

Another good part of the new XPS system is the presence of the SideShow screen that supports several display modes like default (date, time, calendar, system statistics), system monitoring (CPU temperature and speed, RAM availability and fan speeds) and multimedia mode where it allows users to control the access and playback of audio, picture and video files.