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Dell XPS 17 3D

By Matt Simpson - Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Desktop PC’s are typically the powerful home base in most homes. People may have smart phones, tablets, net books, even laptops, but usually they are less powerful the desktop PC. This means that for things that require a powerful computer such as game playing or watching 3D movies, the desktop PC is usually the only option available. However, there are many people who would like to be able to take that kind of desktop power on the road with them. For these people, there is the desktop replacement laptop. They’re not for everyone, but for those who need power, they’re the only mobile game in town.

Trendy Laptops

Desktop replacement laptops have been around for some time. They have been losing ground with many of late because of the push by so many laptop makers to make laptops that are ever thinner and lighter. This is what many people are looking for as a smaller laptop is easier to carry around and is lighter in weight.

Powerful PC components are also power hungry, so reducing the power of the processor and graphics card will help reduce the overall power consumption of the laptop as will using a smaller screen. Smaller screens use less power as there are fewer pixels to light and lower power backlighting is required. This lets the battery power the laptop for longer periods of time allowing users to avoid feeling tethered to an electrical outlet.

Desktop Replacements

The other theory of laptops is the one that says that you want as much power as you can get but in a mobile package. These will have full powered CPU’s, often with quad cores. There will also be the most powerful mobile graphics processors that themselves may have a gigabyte of RAM or more dedicated to them. The screens will be bright and large, with the notable addition of being much higher resolution than the low powered laptops that steal sales these days.

The problem with these laptops shows right away, with a 17” screen, the desktop replacement laptops are huge by comparison. For those who have used a net book or tablet they will look like dinosaurs. Due to the cooling required, they will also be much thicker than the lower powered counterparts. These won’t a laptop you can slide in among your books and walk around with. You will want a dedicated laptop case or backpack. Even then the 8 or so pounds that these weigh is more than some people are comfortable carrying or even using.

If size and weight were enough against them, there is the power consumption to worry about.  Their large size may allow them to have large batteries, but the monster power consumption of their internal components and their large screen means that you will likely never be able to get too far from AC power. Some will allow you to watch a full movie, but little more. Games can drain the power even quicker, since the both the CPU and GPU are running at full power. Add to that the amount of heat desktop replacement laptops produce and some people don’t even want them on their laps.

XPS 17 3D

Despite all of the negatives, there is simply no way to do the things you can do with a desktop replacement if you are using one of those light quiet, low power laptops. Playing games on the road or watching 3d Blu Ray movies requires power and the Dell XPS 17 3D provides plenty of it. A full spec’ed version of this monster laptop contains parts you would be more likely to find in a high powered desktop PC.

The Intel I7 quad core processor is at its heart, providing 2.5 GHz with all cores burning and 3.6 GHz in turbo mode for single threaded applications. 16GB of RAM is available though you will likely never need that much. Hard drive options come in either a SSD or HDD flavor and Nvidia’s newest and most powerful mobile GPU is present. A full HD screen and Blu Ray player round things off.

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