The Dell XPS 8300 is a great looking computer, built inside a diminutive, yet stylish chassis not available anywhere else. The two tone cream and black finish is appealing and connectivity is well catered for, with ports available on the top, front and back of the case.
In regards to performance, the system didn't fail to deliver, handling the latest Direct X 11 engines with ease, thanks to the inclusion of the powerful Nvidia GTX 560 ti graphics card. When this is combined with the Core i5 2500 processor we found it could handle anything we threw at it, including 3D rendering and 1080p encoding duties. The RAID 0 hard drive configuration helps to improve overall system responsiveness and is a worthwhile option to utilise.
Internally, the system is well put together, although the routing is not the best we have seen and actually quite messy. We would assume that when Dell put a machine such as this into mass production that they are aiming purely for build speed. Negatively, we were also disappointed to see that they were using ram modules without heatspreaders. I would class this as unforgivable in 2011, as the costs for this upgraded memory would be negligible.
The XPS 8300 has many uses, it is powerful enough to handle gaming duties on a 24 inch monitor or 1080P television set. It is quiet enough to double up as a media center in a living room or bedroom. It is also small enough to fit into a variety of environments, while maintaining a sleek and attractive appearance.
We do have some concerns with the Dell upgrade tool however, as we mentioned earlier in the review, the cost of the GTX560 ti upgrade for instance is £370 extra. This seems a little over the odds to us and it would be much cheaper to buy a GTX560 ti and upgrade the machine yourself. Obviously this somewhat defeats the purpose of buying a prebuilt machine.
The configuration we received for review costs £1,329 according to the pricing on their site as of today. It is a solid machine and it will suit a wide audience, but it can't earn a MUST HAVE award at this price as there are many alternatives available in the UK, some of which would cost less. That said, we really did like the custom chassis and selection of components, it is a very capable all round performance system.
Pros:
- The case design is very appealing.
- quiet.
- runs cool.
- Raid 0 configuration performs well.
- great CPU and GPU performance.
Cons:
- rather expensive when compared to other machines with similar specifications.
- some of the ‘upgrade' pricing seems high.
- no heatspreaders on memory.
- internal cable routing could be neater.
Kitguru says: A well built machine with balanced specifications.