Ordered XPS 8300, but maybe changing my mind

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 18:19

I've ordered a refurbished XPS 8300 from Dell Outlet for £450 (inc VAT). It is has an i7 2600 processor and 6GB of RAM, a 1TB drive, no dedicated Graphics Card and just a basic DVD drive.

I thought it was quite a good deal, but then I started reading some reviews today and it seems that the upgradeability isn't great, with a lack of PCI slots, a lack of space inside the case, and lack of SATA cables.

So, tonight I had a look online at a couple of sites that offer custom built machines, and I put together this, for £644 (inc VAT).

Black ATX Tower Case
Intel Core i7 2600 (4 x 3.4 GHz) 8MB
Intel Heatsink & Fan - Low Noise
Corsair 8GB XMS3 PC3-10666 1333MHz (2x4GB) - Lifetime Warranty (DDR3)
None or Motherboard Integrated Graphics
Asus P8P67 LE (Intel P67) - B3
Motherboard Integrated HD Sound
Motherboard Integrated Ethernet Lan (Broadband Ready)
700W PSU
1 TB (1000 GB) SATA-II HDD UDMA 300 7200 32MB
Samsung (SH-D162D) 16x DVD-ROM - Black (SATA)
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 BIT (Genuine DVD & COA Included)

I intend to use the machine primarily for day to day stuff (browsing, word processing etc), plus .NET development, some HD video capture and editing, and also to use it as a PVR.

I *probably* won't use it for gaming, but I would like to keep the option open.

I'm prepared to pay a bit more to get good performance and a bit of future proofing, but don't want to go OTT.

It seems that the XPS 8300 only has 4 slots, so they would be taken up by a graphics card (2 slots) a firewire card, and a TV tuner card. It doesn't have USB 3, except via another card, which seems to limit it somewhat.

I just wondered what people on here thought. Should I just stick with the XPS 8300, should I do a custom build, and is the above custom build a good price?

Any thoughts would be very appreciated.

hybrid572 · 16 Jun 2011 at 18:25

You need an i7-2600K, a P67 motherboard for overclocking, a considerably better branded PSU, and a relatively inexpensive graphics card such as the 5770, or even 5670. You should be able to get all of the above for the same price as a prebuilt, if you're happy to do it yourself.

hybrid572 · 16 Jun 2011 at 18:31

It's probably worth mentioning, though, that the 8300 is fantastic value at that price, and should do everything you need it to. Get the single slot 5670 to put in it for £65, and you'll be able to game on it if you so wish (albeit not near max settings), you won't need to upgrade the PSU, and you'll have a spare PCI slot. You also don't need USB3, you likely won't benefit from it much if at all.

It's up to you whether you'd rather have an overall better system, or save money by getting the XPS and still having something very capable indeed.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 19:22

hybrid572 said:
It's up to you whether you'd rather have an overall better system, or save money by getting the XPS and still having something very capable indeed.

Thanks for your advice so far.

I'm certainly come to the same conclusion that the 8300 is a pretty good deal (compared to trying to get a custom build of a similar spec). I'm just a bit concerned that I'll spend the money and then sometime later find that there is something that I want to do with it and can't, and then end up either compromising, or having to buy something else.

You mention having a graphics card that only uses one slot. Am I right in thinking that the high end cards will need two slots?

I did think that I wouldn't need the USB 3 slot as you say, so even if I do need a two slot graphics card, I have two more slots for the TV tuner and the firewire card, so I guess that works.

I wonder, does the graphics card have any impact on video processing and/or recording/playing back a TV signal?

You also mention in your first post that I could probably do it as cheaply if I was prepared to do it myself.

I wouldn't be comfortable doing the initial assembly (motherboard, PSU, cabling etc), but I would be happy to clip all the bits in (CPU, memory, drives and PCI cards).

Do you think that I should possibly consider a buying a barebones system, and then just stick in the bits I want?

Thanks again for your help.

scrlk · 16 Jun 2011 at 19:44

Mr Default said:
Thanks for your advice so far.

I'm certainly come to the same conclusion that the 8300 is a pretty good deal (compared to trying to get a custom build of a similar spec). I'm just a bit concerned that I'll spend the money and then sometime later find that there is something that I want to do with it and can't, and then end up either compromising, or having to buy something else.

You mention having a graphics card that only uses one slot. Am I right in thinking that the high end cards will need two slots?

I did think that I wouldn't need the USB 3 slot as you say, so even if I do need a two slot graphics card, I have two more slots for the TV tuner and the firewire card, so I guess that works.

I wonder, does the graphics card have any impact on video processing and/or recording/playing back a TV signal?

You also mention in your first post that I could probably do it as cheaply if I was prepared to do it myself.

I wouldn't be comfortable doing the initial assembly (motherboard, PSU, cabling etc), but I would be happy to clip all the bits in (CPU, memory, drives and PCI cards).

Do you think that I should possibly consider a buying a barebones system, and then just stick in the bits I want?

Thanks again for your help.

You unpack the motherboard from the box and put everything in? Put standoffs in the case and plug all the PSU cables in - they are keyed and of different sizes so you can't put them in the wrong place/orientation.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 20:07

Vinni3 @H|H said:
You unpack the motherboard from the box and put everything in? Put standoffs in the case and plug all the PSU cables in - they are keyed and of different sizes so you can't put them in the wrong place/orientation.

Yeah, I'm sure it's pretty simple, I'm just a bit too nervous about doing all of that

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to build a PC from scratch, but I'm too nervous about mucking it up. I'm fine when it comes to upgrading (sticking in new RAM and cards etc), but not all of the basic bits, like motherboards and PSUs.

I suppose part of it depends upon how much I could save.

I saw a barebones on this site for about £100 (it didn't have quite the right motherboad, but maybe I could get that changed).

I'd need to look at how much the other components are.

I'd want a 2600K, maybe 8GB of RAM and ideally a 2TB drive, so I'll have a look at how much that would cost.

scrlk · 16 Jun 2011 at 20:20

Mr Default said:
Yeah, I'm sure it's pretty simple, I'm just a bit too nervous about doing all of that

Don't get me wrong, I'd love to build a PC from scratch, but I'm too nervous about mucking it up. I'm fine when it comes to upgrading (sticking in new RAM and cards etc), but not all of the basic bits, like motherboards and PSUs.

I suppose part of it depends upon how much I could save.

I saw a barebones on this site for about £100 (it didn't have quite the right motherboad, but maybe I could get that changed).

I'd need to look at how much the other components are.

I'd want a 2600K, maybe 8GB of RAM and ideally a 2TB drive, so I'll have a look at how much that would cost.

No need to worry, it's a simple process. I doubt you could muck it up, everything is designed to be fool proof - eg. things only going in one way.

Don't bother with the 2600K, the 2500K is a great CPU and cheaper.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 20:55

Vinni3 @H|H said:
No need to worry, it's a simple process. I doubt you could muck it up, everything is designed to be fool proof - eg. things only going in one way.

Don't bother with the 2600K, the 2500K is a great CPU and cheaper.

OK, thanks.

Had a look back at the barebones offered on this site, and they have one that takes the Sandybridge CPUs, for £110, but it only has a P8H67 board, whereas I would want they P8P67 LE, which is £30 more. I don't know if they could configure it with that board, but if they could I suppose it would be about £140. Do you reckon I could do it much cheaper than that, if I did it all myself? (the board seems to be £115).

Anyway, I reckon that I would then need to spend about

i7-2600K - £255
8GB Dual Channal DDR3 RAM - £60
2TB Hard-drive - £60
DVD drive - £15

to basically give me what I am getting from the 8300 (although it only has 6GB of RAM, of unspecified type).

I take onboard what you say about the 2500K, and maybe that it the way I will go, but I just included the 2600K for comparison with the 8300.

The above comes to £530, gives me the ports I need, better RAM and double the harddrive, for £80 more than the 8300.

Do those figures sound realistic? Have I missed anything fundamental?

EDIT: Oh, I just realised that I missed out a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, which is another £80, so that puts it up to £610. Still more ports, better RAM and the 2TB hard drive.

scrlk · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:27

Mr Default said:
OK, thanks.

Had a look back at the barebones offered on this site, and they have one that takes the Sandybridge CPUs, for £110, but it only has a P8H67 board, whereas I would want they P8P67 LE, which is £30 more. I don't know if they could configure it with that board, but if they could I suppose it would be about £140. Do you reckon I could do it much cheaper than that, if I did it all myself? (the board seems to be £115).

Anyway, I reckon that I would then need to spend about

i7-2600K - £255
8GB Dual Channal DDR3 RAM - £60
2TB Hard-drive - £60
DVD drive - £15

to basically give me what I am getting from the 8300 (although it only has 6GB of RAM, of unspecified type).

I take onboard what you say about the 2500K, and maybe that it the way I will go, but I just included the 2600K for comparison with the 8300.

The above comes to £530, gives me the ports I need, better RAM and double the harddrive, for £80 more than the 8300.

Do those figures sound realistic? Have I missed anything fundamental?

EDIT: Oh, I just realised that I missed out a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, which is another £80, so that puts it up to £610. Still more ports, better RAM and the 2TB hard drive.

You need a motherboard, case and PSU.

EDIT:
This spec should do it. Your 2TB drive likely isn't a 7200 RPM type so it will be quite slow and 1TB should be enough. You can overclock the 2500K easily so the 2600K is useless (plus the motherboard has a free cooler).

bremen1874 · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:35

Plus the cost of the operating system (assuming Windows).

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:45

Vinni3 @H|H said:
You need a motherboard, case and PSU.

EDIT:
This spec should do it. Your 2TB drive likely isn't a 7200 RPM type so it will be quite slow and 1TB should be enough. You can overclock the 2500K easily so the 2600K is useless (plus the motherboard has a free cooler).

Thanks for putting that spec together, very helpful.

I had included the £140 barebones box in the £610, which I guess would include the PSU too.

With an £80 copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, the spec you put together would be £746 I suppose, but it is interesting.

Thanks again.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:53

OK, so assuming the barebones @ £140 plus

i7-2500K - £175
8GB Dual Channal DDR3 RAM - £60
2TB Hard-drive - £60 (Samsung SpinPoint 2TB)
DVD drive - £15
Windows 7 Home Premium - £80

is £530.

I don't have any experience of overclocking. Could I overclock the 2500K myself?

hybrid572 · 16 Jun 2011 at 21:56

My advice would be to stick with the XPS- you're talking about saving some serious money here, for very little performance loss. A 5670 will make it perfectly capable for games at semidecent settings, and you can always upgrade properly if you turn into a serious gamer. With £300 saved, you could do a lot.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 22:03

hybrid572 said:
My advice would be to stick with the XPS- you're talking about saving some serious money here, for very little performance loss. A 5670 will make it perfectly capable for games at semidecent settings, and you can always upgrade properly if you turn into a serious gamer. With £300 saved, you could do a lot.

OK, but I think that the box I am getting doesn't come with an dedicated graphics card. Others on the outlet site mentioned specific graphics cards, but this one didn't.

Also, the other ones mentioned specific RAM, whereas this one just said 6GB of RAM, so I think it could be pretty basic stuff.

So, I don't think it is a "standard" 8300.

Aside from the processor being a 2500K rather than a 2600K, the spec I mentioned above seems quite a bit better, and for only £80 more. So I am tempted.

hybrid572 · 16 Jun 2011 at 22:17

The spec you mentioned above certainly does look appealing. Stick a Hyper 212 Plus cooler in there and you'll be able to overclock it to super speeds easily.

An overclocked 2500K is certainly a match for a 2600, so it seems like a better option.

Mr Default · 16 Jun 2011 at 22:37

hybrid572 said:
The spec you mentioned above certainly does look appealing. Stick a Hyper 212 Plus cooler in there and you'll be able to overclock it to super speeds easily.

An overclocked 2500K is certainly a match for a 2600, so it seems like a better option.

Thanks.

I was previously looking at CPU benchmarks and found these:

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

the 2500K seems quite a bit slower than the 2600, but I am guessing that many of the benchmarks run, were just run against an 2500K that wasn't overclocked.

bremen1874 · 16 Jun 2011 at 23:08

Watch what you're comparing. You seem to keep chopping and changing between i5 and i7, and also quoting i5 costs against i7 processors.

Mr Default · 17 Jun 2011 at 21:20

bremen1874 said:
Watch what you're comparing. You seem to keep chopping and changing between i5 and i7, and also quoting i5 costs against i7 processors.

Thanks. I'll try to be careful with that.

It turns out that I can't get a barebones system with the other motherboard, so I guess that I would have to do it from scratch myself (unless I can find another provider that can do it).