Dell XPS 8300 Review (Core i5/Nvidia)

The internal routing isn't the best we have seen, with a bunch of cables laying loose next to the power supply at the top of the case.

As there isn't a fan at the top it shouldn't cause an airflow problem, but it does look slightly substandard when compared against some other systems we have received for review in recent months. We also noticed Dell are using memory sticks without heatspreaders which always raises an eyebrow in the Kitguru offices. Supplying heatspreaders with memory adds very little, if anything to the overall cost. Heatspreaders seem commonplace in 2011, so it is always disappointing to see a company compromising in this regard.

Dell are using a 460W power supply which is made in China. The model number is ‘H460AD-00'

The two 1TB hard drives are configured in a RAID 0 partition to help improve the overall performance. We will look at this later in the review.

There is a rear mounted exhaust fan to help improve ambient temperatures. The Nvidia GTX 560 ti is mounted to the case with a special bracket. This ensures no movement will occur during rough shipping.

The internal build raises no concerns, it is just a little untidy, and we were disappointed with the choice of memory used.

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