The people at Dell are past masters at watching a market segment grow and, when they deem the time is right, launching a product and muscling their way in to try to get the segment leader spot. The last time it worked was with the highly popular Axim PDA, but the whether they will be as successful with their latest venture only time will tell.

The latest addition to the popular Dimension line is the XPS, aimed squarely at the high-end gaming market. The purpose-built gaming system may be a niche market but it must be a lucrative one, otherwise Dell wouldn't be going head-to-head with the likes of Alienware and Amari.

To distinguish itself from the rest of the Dimension line, the XPS uses a new case design. The new case looks like it's on steroids, and feels it too - this case is no lightweight. It also follows the latest ideas on segmented case design with the 460W power supply fitted in its own compartment at the bottom of the case with just an access hole for all of the power cables to pass thorough.

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As with all Dimension cases, care has to be taken when opening the case side as all the drives are fitted with cables just long enough to let the case be opened, so take your time and nothing will get pulled out of the motherboard.

Although it's crammed with power-hungry components, it's surprisingly quiet when its going at full tilt. Also, and totally un-Dell-like, part of the lower half of the front bezel is backlit by a glowing light, which offers a choice of eight colours from diamond to topaz (but bizarrely the only way you can change the colour is in the BIOS).

As is the case with its competitors, Dell offers the best hardware with the XPS and, as with all Dell systems, it is buyer-configurable, so you can cut back on some of the hardware that was built into the review system to save some cash - as there is a lot of cash to splash out for an XPS.

In standard guise, the XPS comes with a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 540 (an 800FSB, 3.2GHz Prescott in old money) but the review system had a bit more poke as it was fitted with a 3.6Ghz Pentium 4 560 backed by 1GB of dual-channel PC-4200, 533MHz DDR-II memory.

There is a whole range of storage options provided for the XPS. The review sample shipped with two 160GB SATA drives arranged in a Striped RAID array. Striping offers performance, while Mirroring offers safety.

Somewhat surprisingly Dell doesn't offer a dual-format DVD burner for the XPS, so you will have to make do with just DVD+R/+RW. Our system had a companion 16-speed DVD-ROM drive.

To make the XPS a true gaming machine the graphics card would have to be something special, and Dell doesn't disappoint here. Although the base unit comes with a 128MB PCI-E ATI Radeon X300SE, which is as about as much use for serious gaming as a chocolate teapot, the company does offer (albeit for an extra £246) ATI's Radeon X800XT, probably the fastest card around presently. Monitor choice is down to you but both CRT and TFT options are available.

A novel twist to the usual Dell support is that the support team is a dedicated band of techies and gamers whose sole job is to help you with the XPS. It also comes with a three year, on-site NBD warranty as standard.

Dell has ventured into a very niche market with the XPS. There are cheaper Dimensions in the range if you are just looking for a desktop PC, while Dell's competitors offer more stylish cases. But it's good to see Dell moving into this market, and it's not a bad system.