4. All Else Considered

Anyone with overclocking experience knows that good results require great RAM. Dell included 4 GB of Corsair's PC2-1066 in this XPS 720 H2C Series system, which is capable of speeds far in excess of those necessary to extract top CPU performance.

Fast RAM and a fast CPU need to get data from somewhere, and Dell again decided to go "all out" for speed. Two 150 GB Raptor drives retrieve data quickly thanks to their 10,000 RPM spindle speed, with a RAID 0 configuration boosting throughput.

Of course, RAID 0 performance comes with a slight risk of data loss, and 300 GB isn't much storage to begin with. Dell remedied this by adding a Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1.0 terabyte storage drive.

If an extra terabyte of storage isn't enough, it's good to know that you can back up huge files without using a stack of DVD media: Dell included a Philips Blu-Ray drive with BD-RE recording capability.

With the high power requirements of two 8800 Ultra graphics cards, an overclocked quad-core processor and three high-performance hard drives, this system is going to need some serious power. Dell chose a 1000 W unit with five 12V rails.