14 DAY TRIAL // Dell has started taking orders for their XPS M1730: World of Warcraft Edition notebooks. The initiative is the result of Dell having teamed up with the developers at Blizzard Entertainment in order to create a gaming notebook to suit the Warcraft fans. There are more than nine million subscribers to play World of Warcraft online. Although the vast majority are just trying to kill some time or to socialize via the Warcraft world, there are a bunch of hardcore players to dedicate themselves to the game.
For those few yet wild, Dell has created a customized distribution of the XPS M1730 success story, that comprises practically a whole high-end desktop system into an M1730 notebook chassis. Under the hood, there is an Intel Core 2 Extreme X7900 CPU at 2.8GHz, accompanied by a 2GB dual channel DDR-667 memory. Storage space is more than enough, since the notebook comes with 2 x 200GB hard drives, set up as a 400GB RAID 0 array, while graphics is provided by two Nvidia 8700M GT GPUs (each with 512MB of video memory) linked in a dualSLI configuration. The AGEIA PhysX 100M physics processor makes sure that hardware acceleration is at home when you most need it. The WoW sound effects can be admired even by your neighbors thanks to the Integrated HD audio with Creative Labs Audigy software stack.
The connectivity part is provided by the Intel 802.11 a/g/n wireless networking for the cable-haters, while the high-speed gamers can enjoy the integrated gigabit Ethernet for wired connections. It doesn't take rocket science to figure out that the laptop hides inside its belly what most desktop computers don't even dare to dream of, so we can agree upon the fact that the WoW laptop is quite a piece. Anyway, this is not what makes the WoW fan trade his parents for. Apart from the custom boxes, the system can be configured to fit your gaming habits, whether you favor the Alliance or the Horde. The laptop features a separate numeric keypad, a nifty feature few notebooks integrate nowadays.
The notebook comes rigged with the WoW game, as well as other goodies from "uncle" Blizzard: a Blizzard beta key card with five keys that can be used in upcoming WoW betas, an upgrade certificate that upgrades accounts to the "Collector's Edition" level and gives extra in-game items, as well as the Golden Ticket that may be used to acquire a special action figure which is customized to look like your in-game character.
It sounds great and it only takes $4,499 for your own WoW customized notebook. Dell will launch the new line on December 11th, when they will become available for retailing. Anybody remembers the days we used to play football on grass? I thought so...
