Dell XPS Desktop 8300, i7-2600 3.40GHz, 12GB ram, 1.5TB HDD, W7

I have a bluray drive that I was going to put into the spare drive slot, and yes, a few luddites still use optical media!

Jaafa wrote: »

The graphics card already in place will be fine for anything except gaming.

Yes, but I doubt that most people would ever really need the power of a system like that for anything else but gaming Don't get me wrong, this is a really good machine at a very fair price and I don't want to take anything away from that. But I really asked myself whether I would be able to do anything with that system I couldn't do with my current setup, and since I don't play any modern games my answer was no. And that is remarkable, since I am using a Revo 3610 dual core atom I bought after a BA just a year ago. This thing has clocked up more than 3500 hours by now (you can find that out by using CrystalDiskInfo) and I still think the power of it is more than sufficent for practically everything I do including video conversion (which I do a lot of). The power consumption of the Revo including a G2222HDL 21,5"-display should be well below 40 watts at almost all times, whereas the core i7 together with a decent graphics card would certainly pull above 200 watts even at idle and easily twice that at full throttle, plus any peripherals you might use. Most of what you can possibly do with a pc apart from gaming and some special cases of video editing (not conversion) does not require to be done in real time, so power doesn't matter at all. Personally I would not want to use a power hog like that for web surfing, editing documents or watching movies, since there will be a steep tax on that compared to a more frugal system. But then again, I drive a three cylinder corsa and find it more than adequate for Irish roads...

PaddyM7 wrote: »

would this really use that much power idle with the current graphics card. I would have thought it would only use 60 - 100watts idle and 200-250 at full tilt? I am open to correction thought I am no expert

Well, I might have to correct myself with the idle power, you are right. I just found a review of the XPS8300, which concludes that "When completely powered off, the 8300 draws 1.2 watts, which spikes at 219 on boot. At an idle Windows desktop, which is how most desktops spend their waking lives, the XPS 8300 pulls down a surprisingly scant 64 watts of electricity. Under load, we managed to suck up 355W."
So your number for idle is quite close to the truth.

Woohoo, my desktop has been shipped according to the Dell website, hopefully will be here by the end of the week! Ordered it on 6/1 (that was my 2nd order, ordered it initially on 4/1 but cancelled that order the following day to take advantage of the improved build). Anyone else expecting their desktop soon?

Quaderno wrote: »

Yes, but I doubt that most people would ever really need the power of a system like that for anything else but gaming Don't get me wrong, this is a really good machine at a very fair price and I don't want to take anything away from that. But I really asked myself whether I would be able to do anything with that system I couldn't do with my current setup, and since I don't play any modern games my answer was no. And that is remarkable, since I am using a Revo 3610 dual core atom I bought after a BA just a year ago. This thing has clocked up more than 3500 hours by now (you can find that out by using CrystalDiskInfo) and I still think the power of it is more than sufficent for practically everything I do including video conversion (which I do a lot of). The power consumption of the Revo including a G2222HDL 21,5"-display should be well below 40 watts at almost all times, whereas the core i7 together with a decent graphics card would certainly pull above 200 watts even at idle and easily twice that at full throttle, plus any peripherals you might use. Most of what you can possibly do with a pc apart from gaming and some special cases of video editing (not conversion) does not require to be done in real time, so power doesn't matter at all. Personally I would not want to use a power hog like that for web surfing, editing documents or watching movies, since there will be a steep tax on that compared to a more frugal system. But then again, I drive a three cylinder corsa and find it more than adequate for Irish roads...

Hey, thanks for the info on crystaldiskinfo program. I too have ordered this system and just for pig-iron I installed the program to see how may hours I've run up on the old Dell Dimension - wait for it.........................................................46405!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:

kingaaa wrote: »

Hey, thanks for the info on crystaldiskinfo program. I too have ordered this system and just for pig-iron I installed the program to see how may hours I've run up on the old Dell Dimension - wait for it.........................................................46405!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek:

Thats 5.5 years of constantly being on:eek:

kaizersoze wrote: »

You can check the progress with the Internet Receipt Number and your email address. I've often had orders go through without receiving any order number or order confirmation.

that didn't work. Good news, after I posted here I sent Dell a feedback message and in the last 30 mins I have an order number and it said my system will be delivered next monday

So tempting... Was toying with the idea of upgrading everything but my graphics card (best component in current pc), and getting a cheap graphics card to throw into the old pc for media. This would get both birds stoned at once...

No absolute need for it at present though. Guess ill be better served waiting as long as I possibly can.

Unfortunately the site is pretty clear that it's 1TB + 500GB.

As far as I'm aware there's just 2x3.5 bays and 2x5.25 bays, so in this configuration you'd have to stick a third HD in the 5.25 inch bay. I'll confirm when it gets here.

Zab wrote: »

As far as I'm aware there's just 2x3.5 bays and 2x5.25 bays, so in this configuration you'd have to stick a third HD in the 5.25 inch bay. I'll confirm when it gets here.

Strange, I got onto the Dell chat and asked a rep, they said there were three drive bays!

Tradnuts wrote: »

i have a nice graphics card already to put into it.

What one would that be ? Source ? Price ?