Dell flaunts power-gaming PC

Michael Dell joined the overclockers' club on Thursday.

Speaking to a crowd at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Dell founder showed off a new gaming PC that includes several high-end components, including a 'factory overclocked' 4.26GHz Intel Pentium Extreme Edition. (Watch News.com's video of Dell unveiling the PC.)

Dell's Limited Edition XPS 600 Renegade, which is expected to be available this quarter, also includes four Nvidia graphics processors in an airbrushed fiery red case designed by Michael Lavallee.

The consumer market still makes up only 15 per cent of Dell's business, but Dell noted that the company has grown more than fivefold since 2000, while the rest of the PC industry has seen total consumer sales decline.

Overall, Dell said that his company sold 10 million PCs in the fourth quarter, a milestone he said had never been achieved by a computer maker. He noted that one of every three US computers comes from the company he founded.

"It's because of this that we feel an obligation to take computing to the next level," Dell said.

Dell, who was joined on stage by Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, made the case that PCs are better for gaming than consoles, which are considered fast when they come out, but remain static over their roughly five-year lifespan.

"The PC still ranks supreme as the high-volume device of choice," Dell said.

Watch more News.com video coverage of Dell's keynote speech.

Visit our CES 2006 Special Report for more coverage.