Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Discussion of hardware related issues
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Bit the bullet and bought one new to replace the R10 that died. Its not a perfect situation but it has a Intel i5 11400f six core cpu, 16gb ram,512gb ssd, GTX 1660 super and a 500w psu.
Ill replace the Geforce card with my RX6600, Ill add another 16gb of ram and move my 2tb nvme ssd over to it, Ill replace the crappy cpu cooler with a tower cooler, add a vrm heatsink (because of the tower cooler) and another fan in the front of the case. It has a dvd drive, sd card slot and integrayed gpu if needed.
Wont be here till next week but Ill begin moving parts out of my old system.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Finally got my refund on the first system I tried to buy on Ebay that took 11 days to work out. XPS system should be here on Tuesday of next week.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Looks like the system will be here on Monday.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Got the system today and its amazing. After starting up the Win11 oem install and registering the product with Dell I added all my apps and games.
Replaced the poor fans with a 92mm and a 120mm, which when combined with the intel tower cpu cooler keeps the temps at 27c-59c, hugely better than the Alienware system. The 3d printed bracket for the 120mm fan using the hard drive cage supports worked perfectly. Oddities with the system are I cant use 4 sticks of 8gb ddr 3200 ram, so I went with 2x 8gb for now. The Radeon RX6600 installed fine and runs very well in this system. Overall performance is excellent but Ill post back once I run more tests.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

System isnt having any overheating issues. Turned on the pc today and its initial temp was 23c so I guess Ive got it cooled off quite a bit. Testing with games and apps went fine and overall performance is excellent.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

This is an oddity as this system cant use 4x8gb of ram. I checked the manual and indeed it doesnt support it. I have to use 2x16gb instead, but it does support 4x16gb. First time Ive had this iss ue as my now dead Alienware system did support 4x8gb.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

I ended up going ahead and getting 2x16gb as the price was low and better now than later.
Site Moderator
wove
Posts: 1189
Joined: Mon May 04, 2020 4:47 pm

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by wove »

Sounds like a very nice machine. It is very nice to work on new nicely tricked out out hardware. Got any interesting big projects planned? My not as new but well tricked out hardware is an absolute delight to use with more resource intensive tasks. It is also just lovely to have enough reserve resources to jump into something else, while the machine is grinding away on some complex task.
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Using mainly for gaming and had I had more cash, I would have gone for better hardware. This will do though as my eyes are better off in 1920x1080 but love quality graphics if I can use them. Alienware system was the better system but it died much sooner than it should have.
Site Moderator
User avatar
crosscourt
Posts: 11102
Joined: Sun Jan 14, 2018 5:38 pm
Location: Wash DC
Contact:

Re: Dell XPS 8940 special edition

Post by crosscourt »

Its difficult with hardware choices as games can be cpu or gpu bound. If you have a good gpu it wont matter that much whether you have a better cpu or not as the gaming performance relies on the gpu more your numbers will be similar regardless of cpu. Its in games that are cpu bound that the change in performance can be quite wide with a better cpu.
Resolution also changes performance as at 1080p you see much wider gains than you do at higher resolutions such as 1440p and 4k. Game settings of various types can be adjusted to allow for better performance and in most cases not affect the look of the game too greatly.
Site Moderator
Post Reply