Desktop Advice - Dell XPS 8700

[AndrewSt]

Following a thread around a new macbook I am seriously considering just going with a Windows based desktop machine, to save a bit of money but something that will be upgradeable over time. The future Windows 10 look to be an improvement over 8.1 anyway.

Dell seem to have some decent deals on Outlet XPS 8700 models.

For £648 I can get the following model:

• XPS 8700
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-4790 processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz)
• Windows® 8.1
• 2 TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
• 12 GB DDR3 Dual Channel Memory (2x4GB + 2x2GB) 1600MHz
• 2 GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750Ti
• Back Up Media Not Included
• Windows® 8.1 (64 Bit) English
• 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
• Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 + Bluetooth 4.0
• Black Chassis
• Dell USB Keyboard

I would probably want to add a 240GB SSD to install the OS and program files on, this should be fairly straight forward? Any issue with outlet systems not providing backup media? 2x8GB ram slots from cruical would also upgrade it to 24GB without costing too much.

Any thoughts on the spec? Anything better for the money?

 

[neil_g]

assuming the system has a spare sata connection and power connection internally it should be fine. you could mirror the preinstalled OS onto the SSD or you could do this:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

then just grab hardware drivers from the dell support page using your service tag.

sounds like a good spec, the CPU isnt K so you cant overclock it if you wanted to. but no biggy if you have no intention of doing so.