Product Listing

Extreme Performance: Dell XPS 730 Desktop

By Aloysius Low - 3 Dec 2008

Inside Peeks

Inside Peeks

Inside the deep and dark caverns of the XPS 730 lies a very packed chassis with nary a space for ventilation - which doesn't explain the loud fan noises that we've heard so far. The answer becomes readily apparent however when you start looking at the bottom of the chassis and you'll find Dell's H2C cooling kit doing its job while the fan above it draws in the cool air needed for the video cards and the rest of the system. While there are slots for upgrading (including the two spare HDD drive cages shown below), it's quite doubtful that there's any real need for more upgrading (and it could be troublesome if you're doing it yourself).

As mentioned earlier, the casing opens from the right side instead of the usual left side. Familiar components abound, with one massive addition...

The massive addition we're referring to of course, is the Dell H2C TEC cooling kit. The main cause of the 'airport runway' hum of the unit however lies just above it where massive fan units suck in a chunk of fresh air to cool the video cards. These fans throttle with relation to the internal temperature of the system, so that's why they are much more audible at times (like a jet taking off if you will).

A closer look at the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 and the four 1GB DDR3 RAM sticks.

Located just above the CPU (normally located below) are the pair of NVIDIA GeForce 8800 Ultras that help power the extreme performance the Dell XPS 730 is capable of putting out. Also hidden behind the wires is another PCI-E 16 slot and a PCI slot for further expansion.

Moving higher, we see the 1000W PSU and the two 1TB HDDs with space for another two.

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