Finally getting new PC Dell XPS 8930 whaddya think?
Spit
Posts: 2,342
This is my sixth! Dell (almost went with Alienware Aurora but demured). Closing in on 7 years old! Fine for everything I do except DAZ. Can't even do dForce.
This was a 'Special Edition' with a 460w power supply
i7-8700K 6-Core Processor (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz)
32GB, 2666MHz, DD
512GB M.2 PCIe x4 SSD
2TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X
Dell UltraSharp 24 InfinityEdge Monitor
Oh, and got Windows 10 Pro in case I need extra 'control'.
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I'm already behind since I really wanted a 1080ti with 11 gigs but only offered on alienware, besides new nVidias coming out. Can't have everything. :)
I've been very busy with other stuff (I have a life, you know) and haven't even touched Studio for over 2 years but I'm coming back and have to learn basically from scratch--at least iRay and dForce. Gonna be scary fun.
Anyway, HI AGAIN, EVERYONE
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Comments
Congrats. The system looks good, to my "untrained eye." Enjoy yourself, and let us know how everything goes!
(PS: I don't have a life, but I've resigned myself to it!)
For pre-built it looks like a decent system.
Looks very good. Just keep in mind that if you buy a Dell or HP or the like they don't design for expansion, so if you're planning to add stuff in the future you may have to buy a new case or power supply or even motherboard.
Dell is a lot better than they used to be. I remember a time when to even replace the power supply, you could only get a replacement from Dell becasue of their proprietary wiring and connector setup. Now, you can replace or upgrade most anything in a Dell with off the shelf parts. One thing about the PC referenced by the OP is the really intelligent airflow setup ( theres a video on the Dell website acout that specific machine). The way the fans and power supply are positioned sets up a great airflow pattern that should keep everything nice and cool. I suspect there may be a bit of noise when the fans ramp up but not sure.
Dell seems to be a lot more high-end these days. Hear good stories in general.
Great new system OP! Enjoy :)
This Dell SE has a 460W ps which, on the Aurora, they supply automatically when you choose the 11G 1080 and 1G SSD. I only got the 8G one and 512 SSD. I might add a second HD but don't plan on upgrading ram (would have to replace the 32G instead of upgrade to 64).
Thanks for the comments. When I was thinking of the Aurora I had tons of questions, but not so much on the XPS. Out of the 5 previous XPS I had trouble with only one and that was due to fan dying on the nVidea card which I didn't realize for a long long time.
Want to bring this thread up to mention some thngs re my new PC which might be interesting to others.
Well, one thing anyway re Windows 10 and external drives.
I'm not sure this was due to a W10 update or if I just noticed after but I started having problems transferring data between my external USB Seagate 2G to the internal HD. I had had some strange errors pop up earlier after long sessions of file transfer. But they seemed to be due to Explorer overload so-to-speak and a Restart of Windows Explorer via Task Manager alleviated that problem.
But more recently when I was doing more transfers they would stop dead with I/O errors, either way, whether between internal and external or betweeen two externals. I did scans on both internal and external drives and they came up clean.
To make a long story shorter I noticed in the Event Viewer that before each of those errors and the ensuing ones there had been a reset sent to the external.
There can be many reasons to send a reset but researching showed more instances of Power Management being the culprit than anything else.
In Device Manager I disallowed Power Management to affect the USB HUBS in properties and switched my Power Management plan to High Performance.
I've since transferred 100's of gigs with no problems.
Yeah, the dell/gateway proprietary stuff cost me a good penny back in the day. I had bought a system that had a large enough case to upgrade, with some extra slots on the Mobo and thought it was good to go. I found out later when I wanted to add a beafier graphics card, I needed a better PSU. Bought the PSU, when going to install it, I found out they used a custom power connection, so ended up having to either buy an overpriced PCU from them, or get a whole new MoBo. That was when I started building my own systems myself lol.
I hear you. I don't know if your experience was dell or gateway. I put a 2nd hd in almost all my Dell Dimensions and replaced sound card and graphics card on two of them without issue. But beyond simple stuff like that I won't go. Dell's support is quite good and to me that's worth a little extra.
The problem is likely that 460W PSU is just too weak. I specced out a comparable system and it came out at a draw of 338W as built. Powering those external devices may just max out that PSU.
Perhaps, but Alienware is very popular and this PS is what they give when you up the requirements for video, ssd, and an extra harddrive--to more than what I have on mine.
Alienware used to be good. Now its just a nameplate on Dell systems.
A properly specced system would have put in a PSU with a significantly higher rated PSU. I'd never build that system with less than a 550 and would prefer at least a 700W. PSU's are most efficient at 50% of their rated capacity so this system was built to be very inefficient. At nearly a 75% rated maximum it's wasting a lot of its draw as heat and shortening the PSU's lifespan considerably.
Well, we'll find out--someday. You may have all the knowledge but I'm the one who has had 6 Dell Dimensions and I have no regrets.
Dell is nowhere near as proprietary as they used to be. I’ve upgraded several of those for family and friends over the last few years. Usually the most common upgrades I do for them are putting in better PSU’s and vid cards along with adding memory. The cases are a little small but if you pay attention to cable routing it’s not that that hard to do.
You asked why you'd had the problem, you even said you had to go to the high performance power plan, and I pointed out the most obvious issue. If you didn't want to know why did you ask?
I have purchased 2 dell XPS I7 desktops over the last 10 years and they are still both in use today! They were a great value and rock solid. Yours should serve you well. Enjoy!
Are you serious? I think you don't understand how Windows Power Management works. It has nothing to do with the power supply. It shuts down certain subsystms to lower your electric bill and 'save the planet' (tm). USB ports have constant "traffic" whether legitimate or garbage because they're part of the raid system so they're supposedly a good system to target. Unfortunately the system doesn't see that real data is being transferred by the user. I told the system not to let Power Management (there's a tab in properties of the USB hubs specifically for this pupose) affect the USB ports and the problem seems to be solved. Voila.
I have lots of data to transfer around since I'm still setting up multiple runtimes on this new machine. But at the point where my USB use will become more sporadic I plan to change it back or fiddle it somehow b/c now the lights on the HDDs in the USB ports are constantly on.
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, Ive been happy with all my Dells (except one, but that was due to an nvidea card fan which died undetected and burned out the sound card sitting next to it and a slow heat death ensued--but that one lasted 5 years until it had had enough.
That's true but even back then Dell wasn't as proprietary as some of the others. At least with video and sound.
I am a huge fan of CyberPower PC as they let you change up just about every system they offer from everything from the mother board to the case so I've been shopping with them for more than a decade now. Your system looks GOOD though. Enjoy your new adventures! :-)
I think you misunderstand it more than I do. Performance does many things that could be affecting the USB ports beyond that and it is highly unlikely that Win10 would be resetting a USB that was actively transferring data. Windows can quite easily tell an active USB from an inactive one. As I told you before your base system is specced at roughly 75% of the PSU's rated draw. if those external drives are USB 3 then they are drawing power from the system as well. Considering the amount of wattage you have to play with it wouldn't take much to push you from 75% to 90% and I've seen systems do exactly what you describe at 90% load. Setting Windows to performance power management basically is telling the system to just suffer in silence.
I will, thanks. And YOU will definitely enjoy your i9. Woooowie!
Added: On my next system I'll check CyberPower out. Hope that isn't for a long long time though.
ii planned on getting a new desktop for the new year, looking at the ibuypower w/rtx2070 from bestbuy on sale for 1350 - but i have been procrastinating - comes with i7 1TB
I got an Alienware Aurora r7 last spring when it went on sale at Best Buy. I've been happy with it. Both Dells I had lasted 8 years, so I hoped that Alienware being affiliated with Dell might be a plus not a drawback. I'm going to see if I can add more RAM. It's got 16 gigs upgradable to 32. It doesn't have a solid state drive, but it does have the NVidia GTX 1080 graphics card and i7 processor with a 2 TB hard drive. It fit my budget and suits my purpose for my DAZ Studio hobby as well as my regular home computing needs. I got an Alienware gaming monitor for it. I didn't really know if gaming monitors are good for DAZ, but it seems to work fine.
open the box up and look inside. There are two possibilities for the RAM. You could have two or four slots. If you have 2 then you likely have both populated with 8 Gb sticks of RAM. To upgrade you'd need 2x 16 Gb sticks and they'd replace the existing two. If you have 4 slots all 4 could have RAM in them, 4x4 Gb, or only 2, 2x8 Gb. If all 4 are filled you'd replace them 4x8 Gb sticks roughly as above. If you have 2 empty slots then you have decisions to make. You could try to identify those two sticks and get matching sticks to upgrade, Alienware would like be happy to sell you the RAM at a surcharge or just buy 4x8 Gb matching sticks new. BTW installing RAM is easy it only goes in one way and goes in until you hear and feel a click. Also RAM prices are at an almost 2 year low and are expected to drop throughout the spring so April or May might be an excellent time to do an upgrade.
As to gaming monitors versus professional monitors. Gaming monitors generally have high response times, how fast the monitor shows each input frame from the system, and relatively poor color accuracy. Professional monitors, which are almost never labeled as such but may be called all kinds of things, have the opposite. Low response times and very high color accuracy often including factory color calibration (which is a real help since color calibrating a monitor is a real PITA). Note these differences can be pretty small between a decent quality gaming and pro monitor so unless you are doing commercial work a gaming monitor's color accuracy may be more than good enough and if you want you can often get very close to the best pro monitor accuracy by calibrating any monitor.There are limitations though some monitors simply do not cover the full spectrum of 10 bit colors.
Thanks for the helpful information. It's good to know that RAM prices are low and are expected to drop this spring. I don't do commercial work, so I suppose the gaming monitor's color accuracy is good enough for my DAZ addiction hobby. I don't know how to calibrate a monitor but could probably research it on-line. I do 3-D art for my own enjoyment and because my family and friends enjoy looking at my pictures, so it's not a dire circumstance if the color accuracy isn't perfect. To my untrained eye it looks pretty good. Thanks again for your input.
Laptops at work are Dell - not impressed.
I hope my building's old wiring can handle a 1000 watt PSU! Yea, check out CyberPower PC for sure. They are a great company...
ENJOY your new rig! :-)
All this talk of upgrading your Dells brings to mind a question. Back In My Day (when we didn't have to tell kids to get off our lawns), opening up the case of a name brand computer (Dell, HP, Compaq, ect...) would void your warrenty. Is this still the case? I was thinking about sneaking a second NVIDIA card in mine, but it's less than six months old. Don't want to shoot myself in the foot if the CPU decides to randomly catch on fire...
"when we didn't have to tell kids to get off our lawns"
But we did it anyway, just for fun.
Boy, you are going back a ways there, LosingSignal. I can't remember the last time I saw one of those "do not break this seal" stickers. I don't think they do that anymore. No more keyed locks on the cases. either (although I have seen a few workstations that apparently still have those).