dell XPS background particular edition (8940) brushup
The Alienware family of PCs takes the high-performance spotlight within Dell's universe, but the company's XPS line still packs a punch. The XPS Desktop Special Edition (starts at $931; $2,185 as tested) is a compact mid-tower desktop with ample creative and gaming power thanks to our tester’s Intel K-series processor and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 3070 graphics. Highly customizable from Dell, quiet under load, and packing plenty of connectivity, this tower is an attractive choice, especially if you’re after a lower-key look than a gaming-focused bruiser, though its average-quality case undermines its premium price.
The special edition guise change the XPS Desktop’s color outline from Black to White, which thoughtfully follow to its include keyboard and shiner. The latter are basic wire peripherals; naturally, Dell crack upgrade version as accessory.
An understated even chic front is a samara sell degree for this column. Unlike most gaming desktops, it has no aggressive blueprint feature or flashy lead frippery.
The XPS Desktop is also small for a mid-tower. This generation (designated as model 8940) is even more compact than its predecessor at just 14.4 by 6.7 by 12.1 inches (HWD). It almost looks too short to fit a full-length graphics card, but that it does; the GeForce RTX 3070 in my review unit is the top choice. Getting more performance from a Dell-made system requires stepping up to the Alienware aurora R11
with an RTX 3080 or an RTX 3090 and a look that screams "gamer."
Though the XPS Desktop’s lawsuit pass the visual test, touch it uncover that it could be of high quality. The battlepresence panel is hollow-feeling plastic, while the stay of the font is the kind of sparse roll sword establish on even the least-expensive aftermarket casings. More-premium material would be appreciate at this price.
This tower’s ample front connectivity includes a full-size SD card reader, a headset jack, and four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (three Type-A and one Type-C). The optical drive, a slim tray-load Blu-ray writer in my configuration, is rarely seen these days in new systems, but it's a potentially welcome inclusion for creating movies or backing up data. Backside, the XPS Desktop has a trio of audio jacks (headphone, microphone, and line-out), four USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, two legacy USB 2.0 ports, and Gigabit Ethernet. The HDMI and DisplayPort video outputs on the motherboard are disabled on this unit since it has a dedicated graphics card, a GeForce RTX 3070 with one HDMI and three DisplayPort video outputs.
This unit is also equipped with Dell’s optional 802.11ac radio and Bluetooth solution; a Wi-Fi 6-enabled Killer wireless tease is available.
The XPS Desktop supply square inside access behind its leave gore, which is secure by two finger screw. acquiring the panel off is comfortable; get it back on take a fiddling finesse.
The Spartan bare-steel search is excusable since this column lacks windowed English panel. The cabling is reasonably tidy; I wish that exponent and SATA cable are run to the two 2.5-inch force bay at the upper leave evening though they are unoccupied in my unit, qualification future expansion childlike.
The ability issue’s convenient bottomland localization keep the exponent cable from suspension. The 500-watt version in my unit is the most potent offer in the XPS Desktop, support up to 225-watt graphics card for a wide image of future promote option.
The storage drives in my unit include a front mounted 3.5-inch hard drive and an M.2 Type-2240 SSD in the motherboard’s only M.2 SSD slot just below the CPU cooler. It also has four DDR4 DIMM slots for memory expansion up to 128GB (via four 32GB DIMMs). The CPU air cooler does its job quietly, no small feat given the 125-watt thermal profile of the Intel K-series processor. Dell doesn’t factory-overclock the K-series in the XPS Desktop Special Edition, though I’m not holding that against it. The K-series chips are clocked higher than their non-K counterparts, so they can still be a justifiable upgrade without overclocking them at all.
The 80mm back winnow is also respectably lull, as is the dual-winnow GeForce RTX 3070. Powered by a individual eight-pin connector, the latter span nearly the duration of the lawsuit. there is no battlemovement fan for bring in atmosphere, but the front panel is pierced.
The $2,185 XPS Desktop Special Edition that I’m testing includes an eight-core, 125-watt
processor (3.8GHz, up to 5.1GHz Turbo), an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, 32GB of DDR4-2933 dual-channel memory, a 512GB NVMe SSD, and a 2TB hard drive.
home
is installed free of bloatware on the SSD. This model is nearly fully optioned, though Dell offers the 10-core core i9-10900K
as an upgrade. Unfortunately, Dell doesn’t offer the XPS Desktop Special Edition with an AMD processor like the Ryzen 5 5600X. The standard one-year warranty includes one month of premium support, a $9.99 monthly subscription that you can decline. Accidental damage coverage adds $9.80 per month. Turning what would normally be paid up-front services into subscriptions is an increasingly common practice. The XPS Desktop’s competition comes from both gaming and creative towers. I priced the HP Omen 25L (a cousin of the larger bode 30L
) on HP’s site for $1,949 with a less powerful 65-watt Core i7-10700 chip, but its case is of much higher quality so long as you don’t mind its gamer looks. I also configured a Maingear Vybe for $2,109 with a Core i7-10700K; it, too, has a better-quality case. Though the XPS Desktop Special Edition is reasonably priced for the hardware in my test model, most buyers will likely choose a more affordable loadout. Dell's $931 base model includes a six-core Core i5-10400 chip, a 4GB GeForce GTX 1650 superintendent
or 3GB Radeon RX 5300, a 256GB SSD, and a 1TB hard drive, but just 8GB of memory, making it hard to recommend. Doubling the RAM, to 16GB, is a rather steep $98. Creative users looking for a photo and video editing or graphics-design platform can reach a happy middle ground between the base model and my unit. I configured it with a Core i7-10700, a 6GB GeForce RTX 2060, 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a 1TB hard drive for $1,371. That’s competitive with Lenovo’s Creator 5i tower, which was on sale for $1,299 as I wrote this.
now let’s arrange the XPS Desktop special edition on the test Bench. I pit it against the follow column for our benchmarking comparison.
The HP bode 30L
and the Corsair Vengeance i7200 will punch above the XPS Desktop’s weight with their 10-core Core i9 K-series chips and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards. On the contrary, the
Lenovo legion tugboat 5i
costs a lot less (it was $1,449 as reviewed) with its still-potent GeForce RTX 2070 super
. Last, the MSI MEG Trident Adam
is a compact tower using the previous-generation flagship GeForce RTX 2080 ti
.
, Media, and CPU Tests Our first test is UL’s PCMark 10, a general system performance assessment for real-world productivity and content-creation scenarios. I excluded the chart since several of the other test systems didn’t complete the test, but the XPS Desktop Special Edition did, with an excellent score of 7,106 points. Informally, we look for at least 4,000 points in that test for high-performance PCs. (See more about how we test desktops.)
following up is a pair of CPU-crunching examination: Cinebench R15 stress all available processor core and ribbon while rendition a complex picture, while in our Handbrake test, we transcode a 12-minute 4K television down to 1080p.
The XPS Desktop Special Edition scored as it should considering its Core i7-10700K processor. The legion tower 5i
scored similarly with its Core i7-10700 in Cinebench R15, though it fell behind in the longer-running Handbrake test, in which the Dell’s Core i7-10700K was able to sustain higher clocks.
The final test in this part is photo editing. We consumption an early 2018 liberation of Adobe Photoshop Creative cloud to use 10 complex filter and consequence to a standard JPEG persona, time each operation and lend up the sum. This test is not as CPU-focused as Cinebench or Handbrake, bring the performance of the storehouse subsystem, memory, and GPU into play.
ampere moo 120-second clock alabjected the XPS Desktop special edition to be competitive with the others.
graphic trial
Our beginning deuce benchmarks in this segment standard the gaming performance potential of a PC. inch UL’s 3DMark, we run the Sky diver (lightweight, capable of track on desegregate graphics) and fire strike (more necessitate, for high-end gaming PCs) subtests, both DirectX 11-based. Unigine Corp.'s superposition is the other; it use a different rendition engine to grow a complex 3D view.
The XPS Desktop Special Edition was predictably behind the Corsair and HP towers. However, it matched the MSI and its GeForce RTX 2080 Ti with its GeForce RTX 3070. The latter is an excellent all-around performer for any kind of gaming.
We consumption the built-in 1080p benchmarks in far cry 5 (at its normal and Ultra presets) and rise of the Tomb Raider (at its medium and identical high presets). far shout 5 practices DirectX 11, while we impudent rise of the Tomb Raider to DirectX 12.
produce over 70fps at a 4K/UHD resolution is no little feat. arsenic you'd expect give the television wag, the XPS Desktop special edition is cook for any kind of gaming. A in 3DMark and superposition, it had no trouble match the MSI.
Workstation test
I also ran our workstation tests on the XPS Desktop Special Edition since it could be used for serious or prosumer creative tasks, using the Corsair Vengeance i7200 and the HP Omen 30L from above as continued comparisons.
We’ll beginning with POV-Ray 3.7 for CPU assessment. This test consumption beam trace to supply a three-dimensional picture. (note that it doesn't use the beam trace feature of Nvidia's GeForce RTX-class GPUs; this is purely CPU-focused.)
The Core i7-10700K in the XPS Desktop Special Edition was behind the 10-core Core i9 K-series in the others, but its time indicates that it is more than capable of workloads like this.
now we'll act on to our most workstation-savvy benchmark, SPECviewperf 13, which render and revolve wireframe model use real-world viewsets from popular ISV apps.
The XPS Desktop special edition was a smidge behind the GeForce RTX 3080 duet, but it could easily be use for graphics purpose and other demand 3D undertaking.
Dell’s XPS Desktop special edition trust performance and stylus. It benchmarked beneficial in our test guise, tieding knock on the doorway of higher-end gaming tower with its Intel K-series CPU and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics menu. It also pile on the practicality with its adept connectivity, silence cool, and impressive expansion room despite its pack property.
This column’s big problem is that its event could be good manufacture. however, the White special edition guise is chic and otherwise employment for it. Gaming tugboat are available for alike money with full-quality subjects, though you’ll usually become gamer-themed expression in recurrence. overall, the XPS Desktop special edition is a desirable choice for home, creative, or gaming consumption. Or all three.
Dell XPS Desktop special edition (8940)
3.5 Check Stock $899.99 at outdo buy
Pros
front-panel connectivity view more
con
The bottom line
Dell’s XPS Desktop is an excellent performer and expression chic in its special edition guise, though the chassis could habit a measure up in timbre. (We'd also prize some Ryzen CPU choice, like on its Alienware aurora kin.)