Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK Desktop Review

Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK Desktop Review

Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK Desktop
via Amazon



Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK desktop is presented as the most powerful and the fastest mini tower so far, with its Haswell i7 processor and very large memory, offering smooth performance and multitasking in whatever you do everyday, suitable for advanced gaming, complex photo and video editing and other system intensive applications, easy expandability, with also faster and more connectivity options including a total of 10 USB ports and a 19-in-1 Media Card Reader.

Dell XPS has the 4th generation powerful quad core Intel i7-4790 processor (8MB Cache) with a 3.6 GHz speed with Turbo Boost that takes the speed up to 4 GHz and Intel Hyper Threading technology that handles up to 8 threads in parallel- about 15% more speed than the previous generation equivalent Ivy Bridge CPU (it really is one of the best CPUs in the market at the time of this review), massive 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz (4 DIMMs) for system intensive applications to run smoothly and for all the multitasking you want and expandable up to a max of 32GB, 1 TB SATA 6Gb/s at 7200rpm rotating speed- expansive storage space for all your multimedia files and faster read and write times.

The operating system is the latest 64-bit English Windows 8.1 with its touch enabled interface, customisable tiles and many useful apps for work or play. Dell XPS doesn’t come with a monitor and to make the best use of Windows 8.1, you may want to get a touchscreen monitor. You only have very decent quality graphics and audio on the Dell XPS: Graphics card is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745 with a dedicated 4GB of DDR3 video RAM- a fast-middle-class graphics card packing some great gaming power although not high-end and the integrated 7.1 channel sound technology with Waves MaxxAudio 4 software for the best studio quality sound for when you’re playing the latest games, watching movies, listening to music or editing videos and photos, letting you experience the best cinematic visuals and sound. You’ll get accurate rendering and great frame rates in graphics intensive software and mid to high end games.

Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK Desktop Review
Dell XPS has quite a unique stylish and eye-catching design although not very compact with dimensions of 7.3 x 17.49 x 16.01 inches (manufacturer’s website)- this is a power beast after all. There is not a lot at the front except for the speakers and a couple of ports. All the other ports are at the rear and the tower ventilation are on the sides- left and right. It comes with a wired Dell multimedia keyboard and a USB laser mouse provided in the package.

Connectivity options are Dell Wireless-N 1703 card 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0 tied to wireless card, Gigabit 10/100/1000 Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector, 6 x USB 3.0 ports- backward compatible with USB 2.0 and for transferring data up to ten times faster, 4 x USB 2.0 ports, 19-in-1 media card reader to upload multimedia supporting a great variety of formats, an HDMI port to play your videos in HD quality on your HDTV, a VGA port, 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) that reads and writes DVDs and CDs, 1 x headphone jack, 2 x microphone-in jacks, 1 x AUX audio jack and 1 x DisplayPort.

Conclusion: Dell XPS X8700-2812BLK is designed for high-end computer users in mind as it comes with superior specs and features for the best of gaming and multimedia editing experience but can be used for pretty much anything else too- and you will only perform those tasks faster, smoother and more efficiently. It doesn’t come with much of a bloatware that you need to remove when you first turn it on- Only the Cyberlink Media Suite essentials that may come in handy to many, no antivirus software and 1 month trial version of Microsoft Office Suite.

The keyboard and mouse are wired but you can always get them paying a bit of extra if you prefer wireless. It includes a 12 month In-Home Warranty and some of the best customer support by Dell. The Dell XPS is a reasonably priced powerful and reliable machine with less power supply and with a lower end graphics card than gaming monster kind of machines that cost twice as much but if you want to improve on the already high specs, it is easily expandable. Definitely great value for dollar if you want something powerful, durable and reliable.

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