Dell XPS 8300 desktop user reviews

Pros Well built, compact, quite fast, reasonably power efficient, higher end machine.

Cons Dell support and marketing are confused and not helpful. It is hard to buy what you want. Dell appeal to people who don't want to fuss around building their own white-box system, but don't offer the knowledge, support or information to allow this.

Summary I think this review was harsh if not biased. It criticises the Dell for lower performance than some and then criticises it again for higher power consumption than another. But the low power consumption machine was well slower than the Dell, and the faster machines used significantly more power. That's physics and blaming this machine on both counts seems to indicate a bias. An alternative view might be that the Dell hits the sweet spot in performance vs power consumption.

For this reason only I have reduced faith in the other views expressed.

Pros Good pricing, good quality, fast delivery, configurable for the task that you choose.

Cons My only complaint about this unit is that it comes with only a 650 watt power supply which limits the video performance that I might want.

Summary Configurable for what you want it to do when you are ordering it. I eschew a sound card as I use an external home video system, so this unit has only an HDMI, power cord, and ether net connection. I use Bluetooth for the mouse and keyboard. The system will run BF3 with the Nvidia graphics card, and has impressive, although not super geek graphics performance. It runs every thing else I have tried very well indeed, has built in features that are configurable for making back ups, Dell support for routine maintenance, and for troubleshooting. I have not had reason to call Dell tech support for any of my six Dell computers since 2006, but they are all XPS at this point. A lower end Dell is no prize in my experience.

Pros -lots of ram (I got 12gb)
-Great price (800 usd for me)
-Amazing graphics (AMD Raedon 1gb)
-Great THX 7.1 surround sound
-i7 8core processor(3.4mhz)
-Great for gaming
-Great for video editing
-Great for HD Video
-Sleek, modern, innovative look
-Quiet

Cons -BSOD happened (only twice in 2 month period)
-Small XPS community (but who cares?)
-Bad brand (or not!)
-No blueray

Summary It is one of the most affordable PCs with amazing power. Great price and big brand (id pefer HP though...). Great for gaming, outstanding graphics (I can watch HD video now!!!), amazing 7.1 surround sound, powerful and best processor, lots of ram, a sleek modern look, and it's quiet. Though there are some cons (BSOD, no included monitor), the pros just make it 5/5 stars. I would definatly recommend this PC to anyone, from web browsing to high graphics games, to watching movies, this is a PC for anyone. You won't be disappointed.

Pros good processor
nice looking with many media ports

Cons its a Dell

Summary The important breakdown of what I bought:
- Processors Intel® Core™ i7-2600 processor(8MB Cache, 3.4GHz)
- Memory 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs
- Keyboard Logitech MK710 Wireless Desktop
- No Monitor
- Video Card 1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 545
- Hard Drive 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
- Network Card Standard USB 2.0 + 10/100/1000 Ethernet
- Optical Drive Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
w/double layer write capability
- Sound THX® TruStudio PC™
- Speakers Dell AX210 Stereo Speakers
- Wireless Dell 1501 Wireless-N PCIe Card
- Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months

Bought in December 2011 - $815.98 (includes tax & free shipping)

I have built dozens of desktops and prefer an Asus build. I was looking for a reasonable repolacement for my home desktop. After pricing a custom build (my time included), This was a better deal than I could purchase and build myself (spec'd out on newegg)

The only thing I worry about is it came from Dell. Famous for having issues after they have become a cheap component manufacture worried about volume over quality. If you have to call tech support brush up on your India accents!

The first thing I had to do was strip all of the Dell programs off of it. So far I have had no issues and seems to be running great. The most demanding software I have run on it is CS5 Master Suite. All programs (including Premier) runs very well. If it can continually run with no major problems I will be very satisfied. Hope this helps any of you looking, just make sure you get a good deal...