NEW YORK CITY--At a press event today, Dell announced its new lineup of hardware for the fall. The Texas-based company has recently edged into the PC gaming market, taking on current leader Alienware. With its new roster of XPS-branded desktops, the M170 laptop, and modestly priced plasma and LCD monitors, it hopes to chip away at the some of its new competitor's market share.

　　The main focus was on the new XPS computers, a line of Dell PCs that have been tailor-made for high-performance gaming. The biggest and baddest of the bunch is the XPS 600, a desktop PC that features up to two Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX 256MB graphics cards working in unison, and a dual-core Intel Extreme Edition 800 series Pentium processor. There's no shortage of space, with three internal hard drives delivering a whopping 1.5 terabytes of storage. The XPS 600 starts at $1,849, but because Dell works closely with its customers, a PC gamer with expendable income can burn up to $6,000 via upgrades.

　　Dell is also offering the XPS 200 and XPS 400, two more modestly priced units, each targeted at different audiences. While the 400 functions more as a multimedia machine for households, the 200 goes "nano" by cramming its features into a compact package. Both systems support dual-core Pentium 800 series processors.

　　The XPS 400 doesn't come with the graphics-intensive features of the 600, but it does offer a suite for the family that casually games and dabbles in digital photography, music, and other tech-savvy activities. The 400 offers two internal hard drives, totaling one terabyte of space, which is enough for hundreds of thousands of digital photos. The 400 starts at $1,099.

　　For those PC users who prefer their systems a little more discreet, the 200 packs a punch into a relatively diminutive chassis that measures 1 foot tall and 4 inches wide, with space for one internal hard drive. The 200's base price is $1,149.

　　For those who want to tour Azeroth on the go, the Dell offers XPS M170, a "desktop replacement" laptop. The unit uses the new Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX graphics card, designed especially for laptops, and shows it off with a 17-inch screen. The M170 begins at $2,699.

　　The company's first intended audience with the XPS family is the hardcore gamer. However, Dell is also marketing the systems toward tech enthusiasts, which one rep called the "cornerstone of our brand," and the tech-friendly family interested in gaming.

　　The marketing campaign for the new computers will invade magazines, trade shows, and some television spots. However, Dell is attempting to go into the trenches by letting gamers see the XPS 600 in action up close. Dell has signed an agreement with GameStop to display kiosks featuring the 600 running on a 42-inch plasma screen. The kiosks are already up in 25 stores as of this week, with "hundreds more" planned for the future. GameStop will also reportedly be showing off the Xbox 360 in kiosks on Samsung flat-screen TVs, taking the PC-versus-console battle into retail outlets.

　　Dell today also announced two monitors for both gaming and home use. The company is currently the number one provider of flat-panel monitors in the US, despite its recent entry in to the market. In 2003, Dell entered the LCD market, and in 2004, it offered up its first plasma screen. The new screens appear ready to enhance its market share, with a 32-inch LCD screen priced at $1,799 and a mammoth 50-inch plasma screen that comes with a relatively light price tag of $3,799. Fears of plasma burnout have lessened of late, and executive Mike George claims that a 50-inch plasma could be watched for eight hours a day more than 20 years with no reduction in quality.

　　Even though some may say PC gaming is on the verge of extinction, Dell thinks otherwise and intimated that this line of XPS systems isn't the last. When asked about the direction Dell is taking with the XPS computers, chairman Michael Dell quickly answered, "Four processors aren't too far off."