Dell XPS Desktop (8950) review

XPS desktops (starting at $749, tested at $1,802) are Dell’s premium desktop PCs. It’s been redesigned since our last review, with a sleeker, easier-to-upgrade chassis and Intel’s 12th Gen ‘Alder Lake’ silicon for better performance. Dell’s own Inspiron desktop offers more value for money than the base model’s XPS, but this tower’s configuration, which can be expanded to a liquid-cooled Core i9-12900K processor and his Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 graphics, has There are limits. Winner of our Editors’ Choice award for performance tower desktops not dedicated to gaming or business.

Inside and out of the redesigned XPS

Dell’s extensive configuration options let you tailor your XPS desktop for productivity, gaming, creative workflows, or all three. Our review configuration is a 10-core, 3.7 GHz (4.9 GHz turbo boost) Core i5-12600K processor, 8 GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD with Windows. Suitable for the last two configurations with 11 homes, and a 2 TB hard drive. Standard warranty is 1 year.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

Given the great configurability of the XPS desktop, the comparison to other desktops is fundamental. For example, Dell even lets you order the highest power option (750 watts) with integrated graphics, so you can install your own graphics card. Our review unit competes with gaming desktops. The HP Omen 25L is $2,028 in the HP store, but it has a non-K-series CPU (Core i7-12700). NZXT’s Streaming PC (similar to the Starter PC Plus) is $1,699 and features a lesser AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU, but a faster GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card. Overall, XPS Desktop is tested and reasonably priced.

The $749 base model is our least favorite because you get a 6-core Core i5-12400, 8GB of RAM, a tiny 256GB SSD, and graphics integrated into Dell’s Inspiron desktop for $599. . It does not provide dedicated graphics. So for anything other than a basic home PC, the XPS desktop is your go-to.

The XPS desktop doesn’t look like a game tower, even though the review unit is structured like one. This is part of its charm. Dell offers a platinum silver (as seen in our review unit) or a dark blue called Night Sky. The former has special aluminum feet that make him 0.71 inches taller than the Night Sky chassis, which has rubber feet.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

This redesign addresses the chin-tin feel of the previous model. The front panel is now aluminum, with the exception of the plastic grille. The rest of the chassis is rolled steel. All in all it looks better for this price.

A potential downside is that XPS desktops are now larger and heavier than they used to be. It currently sits firmly in the mid-tower area of ​​15.4 x 6.8 x 16.8 inches (HWD) and starts at 16.8 pounds. That said, the extra depth notably improves cooling and accommodates full-size graphics cards.

Dell puts the best in the XPS desktop, including a full-size SD card reader, headset jack, three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (with sleep and charge at the bottom), and one USB 3.2 Gen 2 type. It keeps the front input selection. -C port. Our review unit also has an optional tray-loaded DVD burner.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

Meanwhile, on the back, there are four more USB Type-A ports (two 3.2 Gen 1 and two legacy 2.0), Gigabit Ethernet, DisplayPort video out, and six audio jacks (mic, line-in, line-out, optical, and 2 surrounds).

(Photo: Molly Flores)

It doesn’t have Thunderbolt 4, but the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port is good for 20Gbps transfer.

More configurable and upgradable than before

As mentioned earlier, the large size of the XPS desktop has its advantages. Unlike its predecessor, it supports full-size (310mm) graphics cards and liquid CPU cooling, and features two 3.5-inch bays (up from one on its predecessor).

(Photo: Molly Flores)

To get inside, you’ll need a screwdriver to loosen the locking screw on the rear latch. Then pull the latch back to release the left panel. The right panel is riveted and cannot be removed.

Proprietary motherboards are roughly ATX sized (12 x 9.6 inches), with the exception of a strange-looking extension on the top right for front panel connectors. (In the photo below, it extends to the right from the printed silver strip on the board.)

(Photo: Molly Flores)

It’s good to see Dell using Intel’s Z690 enthusiast chipset instead of the lower tier B660 or H610/H670. I haven’t tried it, but his BIOS-level processor overclocking with Intel K-series chips is possible. The board also utilizes the latest DDR5-4800 memory standard, which offers much higher bandwidth than DDR4-3200, but inevitably costs his XPS desktop a bit more. (DDR5 is about double the price of DDR4.) Four DIMM slots support up to 128GB of RAM (four 32GB modules).

The board also supports PCIe Gen4 x4 storage with two M.2 2280 slots. The 512GB PCIe 4.0 drive installed under the CPU should be covered by a heatsink, but that’s not a big deal. Another M.2 slot is to the right of the DIMM slots, and to the right of that is the Killer AX1675x, which supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi 6E.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

Two 3.5-inch drive cages on the top panel offer more expansion possibilities. Both power up. A 2TB hard drive mounted on the top right has a tool-less caddy.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

The unit features an Intel Core i5-12600K processor with optional liquid CPU cooling. Air cooling is sufficient for 65-watt CPU options on XPS desktops like the Core i7-12700, but it’s worth the extra $50 for the higher-clocked 125-watt K-series chips.

Our unit’s short 8-inch GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card is well-powered by a 750-watt power supply that can handle up to 350-watt cards like the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. The power supply is proprietary, so if you plan on adding more powerful components, the $50 upgrade over the standard 460-watt power supply is wise. As OEM power supplies often do, it has an impressive 80 Plus Platinum (94% efficiency) rating.

(Photo: Molly Flores)

Airflow in this tower is front-to-rear with a 120mm front intake fan and a 120mm rear exhaust, the latter pushing air through a liquid cooling radiator. In the power supply he has two small fans. The grille on the left panel is positioned to direct the heat from the graphics card through it rather than inside the chassis. The lack of a dust filter is a minor annoyance, but the front fans are easy to remove for cleaning by flipping a tab.

As for the cabling, it’s pretty neat enough for a non-boutique desktop, although the cables aren’t routed exactly and are either bundled or zip-tied to prevent tangling. You won’t see anything like that unless the panel is open. The XPS desktop is also clean software-wise. Dell’s only real contribution to Windows 11 is the SupportAssist app, which makes updating your system and cleaning up your drive a lot easier.

Understated Power: The XPS Desktop 8950 Benchmark

As a refresher, our $1,802 XPS desktop test unit uses a Core i5-12600K processor, an 8GB GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 2TB hard drive.

We paired an XPS desktop with multiple gaming towers for benchmark comparison. It catches the MSI Aegis RS with Core i7-12700K and GeForce RTX 3070, but should be faster than the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i and NZXT H1 Mini Plus, which use previous generation Intel silicon and fewer graphics cards. I have. It will stretch. The final tower for comparison is the massive HP Omen 45L. That said, configuring your XPS desktop closer to one of these towers can provide the same or better performance. See the base specs for all these towers in the table below.

Productivity and content creation testing

The first test is UL’s PCMark 10. It simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes primary drive storage his subtests. The XPS desktop performed well in the main test, scoring almost double the points considered a good indicator of a productive PC and leading the storage test thanks to its PCIe 4.0 SSD. (Our review unit uses a Micron 3400.)

The other three benchmarks focus on the CPU using all available cores and threads to assess a PC’s suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon’s Cinebench R23 uses the company’s Cinema 4D engine to render complex scenes, and Primate Labs’ Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, I use the open source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert the 12 minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (shorter is better).

The ultimate productivity test is PugetBench for Photoshop from Puget Systems.(opens in new window), using Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe’s renowned image editor to evaluate PC performance for content creation and multimedia applications. This is an auto-enhancement that performs a variety of common GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks, from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving images to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

The Core i5-12600K in the XPS desktop lagged the Core i7 MSI and Core i9 HP in predictable increments, helping to score well throughout. The performance improvement over NZXT’s 8-core ‘Comet Lake’ Core i7-10700K shows just how much CPU performance has improved in his two generations. (Our Core i9-12900K review talks about Alder Lake’s new hybrid architecture.)

Graphics and game testing

For Windows PCs, we run both synthetic and real game tests. The former includes two DirectX 12 game simulations from UL’s 3DMark, Night Raid (more discreet and suitable for systems with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding and suitable for games with discrete GPUs). rig) is included. Also included in this group is the cross-platform GPU benchmark GFXBench 5, which we use to measure OpenGL performance.

Moving on, our real-world gaming tests are based on in-game benchmarks for F1 2021, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Rainbow Six Siege, respectively, for simulation, open-world action-adventure, and competitive/esports shooters. represents. On desktop, it runs at the highest quality presets (F1 2021 in Ultra High and Valhalla and Siege in Ultra) at 1080p, 1440p and 4K resolutions.

An XPS desktop with a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is great for flagging 1440p, and can even push 4K closer to 60fps with some tweaks. That card is significantly faster than NZXT’s GeForce RTX 3060, but Dell’s Alder Lake CPUs also widen the gap. naturally dominate the roost. XPS Desktop is available on that card.

A classic tower that does it all

Dell has the winner with the XPS desktop. This chic tower is so configurable that it can compete with most consumer desktops, from sub-$1,000 home PCs to cutting-edge creative and gaming desktops. The $1,802 model we tested offers plenty of performance for creativity and gaming without the need for a big, flashy tower, and is in the spirit of what it does best. Unusually for Dell, you can order with future upgrades in mind. All the complaints we have are petty at best. For drama-free high-performance towers, the XPS desktop is an ace.

Editor’s Note: We’ve updated this review on April 22, 2022 to reflect the availability of the GeForce RTX 3090 as a graphics option (which was revealed after our initial analysis) and processor overclocking options. clarified.