Dell XPS 8300 Desktop Computer Review
With a Core i7 processor and AMD Radeon GPU, the Dell XPS 8300 (X8300-7008NBK) is supplied to control your whole home productivity and multimedia task, and enough graphics chops for casual gaming too. Connectivity ports are around every corner and built-in Wi-Fi in on side, but component lacks niceties including USB 3.0 connectivity plus a Blu-ray drive. Adds up to an ideal computer in Dell desktop deals.
Design and Features
On the exterior the X8300-7008NBK is the identical to the Dell XPS 8300 (X8300-4004NBK) ($699.99 list, 3.5 stars). Both work with the same black mid-tower case sporting a glossy black front panel with silver trim round the edge. The tray over the rest the scenario is good for holding small peripherals, which includes hand held phones and thumb drives. You will also discover two USB ports so its possible to keep your portable devices connected and charged, not to mention headphone and microphone jacks. Others in terms of the front panel are four card reader slots and below these are two optical drive bays plus a sliding panel with two USB ports behind it. Unfortunately, no USB ports using this machine use high-speed USB 3.0 technology.
Rear mounted connections include four USB ports, six audio jacks, an SPDIF audio output, a gigabit Ethernet port, together with eSATA port for high speed data transfers involving the PC also as an external disc drive. Along with wired networking, the X8300-7008NBK includes built-in Wi-Fi ,to aid you to connect wirelessly without employing up an expansion slot. Video connections are all around; the discrete AMD Radeon HD 6770 graphics card provides two DVI ports, one HDMI port, plus a DisplayPort.
The ways to access the medial side comes through the removable side panel residing in place utilizing a single thumbscrew. There isn’t much room inside for expansion given that the video card uses two slots. There’s two unoccupied PCIe x1 slots, only one analysts is crowded by its graphics card. All for the memory slots are occupied. A roomy 1.5TB, 7,200rpm disc drive occupies one drive bay and there is room for starterst additional hard disk drive plus a secondary optical drive. With their beefy graphics card, this program screams for a Blu-ray drive, but alas, to spend less a DVD multi-drive instead. The force supply is rated for 460 Watts, so you will be restricted by a mid-tier graphics solution should you don’t upgrade towards a power source with more wattage.
The 1.5TB drive offers a lot of storage for music, video, and photos. It includes Windows 7 Home Premium, Dell’s Stage multimedia suite, a trial version of McAfee Security Center, Roxio Creator Starter Edition, and Creative’s TruStudio audio software. The X8300-7008NBK has an standard one-year warranty that may be supplemented with one of Best Buy’s add-on plans. For $149.99 it is easy to bump it up to 2 years or select four-year provide $259.99.
Performance
Dell XPS 8300 (X8300-7008NBK) The combination connected with a 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-2600 processor, 8GB of system RAM, and AMD’s Radeon HD 6770 with 1GB of video RAM provided the X8300-7008NBK with lots of productivity horsepower and some decent gaming chops. It’s PCMark 7 score of 3,148 was only 10 points shy of the Editors’ Choice, the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 ($1,299.99 direct, 4 stars) (3,158), and topped the Dell X8300-4004NBK (2,531) by over 600 points. On our Cinebench R11.5 CPU test the Dell X8300-7008NBK’s score of 6.87 led those, narrowly edging out HP h8-1050 (6.82) with its sibling, the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1124 ($899.99 list, 3.5 stars) (6.86).
The X8300-7008NBK also did well on our Handbrake and Photoshop CS5 multimedia tests, completing them in 1 minute 13 seconds and 3 minutes 11 seconds, respectively. The HP h8-1050’s Handbrake score was identical, however its Photoshop CS5 time (2:57) was 14 seconds faster.
The AMD Radeon HD 6770 isn’t a high-end graphics card, but it surely offers enough GPU opportunity to satisfy just about probably the most demanding gamers. It managed 110.8 frames per second (fps) on our Crysis DX10 gaming test while running in medium quality mode (1,280-by-720 resolution) as the HP h8-1050 turned in a score of 98.9 fps. In very good quality mode (1,920-by-1,080 resolution) the X8300-7008NBK managed only 20 fps likened to the HP h8-1050’s score of 27fps (both scores are unplayable). To the more demanding DX11 Lost Planet 2 test, the X8300-7008NBK pumped out 59.3 fps in middle quality settings and 19.3 fps in top quality setting. The HP h8-1050 and its more powerful Radeon HD 6850 card gave us scores of 77.6 fps (at middle quality) and 29.6 fps (at top quality).
The Dell XPS 8300 (X8300-7008NBK)’s Core i7 CPU and discrete graphics card set a n option for those of you seeking an excellent home desktop system. A lot easier short work from your productivity and multimedia tasks and handle moderate graphics duty way too. The lack of USB 3.0 technology is troublesome, however, along with a multimedia desktop this particular range of prices consist of a Blu-ray drive as standard issue. For people with another $300 to invest and would like a much more feature-rich system, the HP Pavilion Elite h8-1050 offers USB 3.0, a Blu-ray drive, a TV tuner, and faster graphics, and that’s why it remains our Editors’ Selection for media desktops.
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