Dell XPS X8500-4726BK Desktop (3.1 GHz Intel Core i7-3770 Processor, 12GB DDR3, 2TB HDD, Windows 7 Home Premium) Black [Discontinued By Manufacturer]

I am heavily into 3D graphics, so my expectations for the Dell XPS-X8500 were very high. It is, indeed, a very nice machine. The specs are very good for what you pay for it. I was most interested in the NVidia graphics card that comes with it. I bought this Dell to replace my older HP Pavilion 64-bit quad-core, which had served me well for 4+ years before finally giving it up. The HP was, for it's time, a very fast machine. I was expecting the Dell to mop the floor with the HP, but that just didn't happen. In fact, the only real speed improvement of the Dell over the HP was in the 3D graphics rendering area. The Dell allows me the ability to render GPU graphics with just the NVidia graphics card, which saves quite a bit of time. The overall performance of the Dell, however, is just not what I thought I would be getting. I was prepared to be at least a little dazzled, but I'm not. It isn't so much that it's "slow", but again, I wanted to see the HP blown out of the water and it just didn't happen.On a more positive note, I really like all of the USB ports available on the Dell (both USB 2.0 and 3). I have 4 external hard drives hooked up to it along with various other peripherals. The 2TB hard drive is great to have also, since I do video and animation work along with 3D stills.The greatest negative for me on the Dell is the keyboard. I've owned quite a few computers over the years and the keyboard that comes with the Dell is the worst I've ever had. I promptly replaced it with the wonderful solar-powered Logitech wireless keyboard. I also replaced the mouse with a Logitech wireless mouse, which is also another beautifully designed peripheral.Would I recommend the Dell XPS X8500? Absolutely. It's a good, solid machine. I'm not a gamer, but I'm sure it would easily hold it's own in that area. For 3D graphics artists like myself, I'm not so sure. The Dell performs fine, but don't expect to be razzle-dazzled by it's somewhat average performance in the high-end graphics arena. It's good, but not great in this area.

I was a Dell customer many years ago but after some disappointing service and products I stopped buying. For sometime now the xps8500 has piqued my attention. The specs on the machine were exactly what I wanted and at a great price as opposed to me putting together the parts myself. Machine runs fast and quiet. The low noise level was a pleasant surprise I expected for such a top machine that it would run a bit louder. My only grouse is the Dell bloatware. Almost 30gigs+ that can't just be uninstalled, but this can be fixed easily when I upgrade to windows 8. Still a great product handles video playback with no stuttering even with large mkv files. Gaming as well no issue StarCraft II runs smoothly and details look sharp.

I had been using only a laptop for some time, when I became addicted to World of Tanks, and also wanted to start doing some more 3D modeling and flight sim work. It was obvious that I was going to need a new desktop. In the past I have both built my desktops, or purchased them direct from mainstream manufacturers. Building a desktop always is a bit of a hassle, as I have to spend hours reading up on the latest hardware developments, building component and compatibility lists, and find the best vendor prices, etc.I'm getting old, my time is valuable to me, so I decided to purchase a complete PC. My first Dell, was in 1990, a 386sx/16. My second was in 1995, a XPS-P100C, and now my third, is this XPS-8500.On the good side: great performance, extremely fast Amazon Prime shipping, Windows 7, runs World of Tanks, FlightGear, and Rise of Flight very well, Blender and Gimp 2.8 run super fast. Nice GT640 1GB graphics card, 12GB of RAM, and a 2TB HDD. ALSO NO CRUFTWARE/BLOATWARE. It came with a free McAffe virus package that was easily removed and replaced with AVG. That was it. Wonderful compared to the ridiculous piles of bloatware that you get on an HP PC. Also the machine is extremely quiet, and features USB 3.0 ports on the front and rear, and onboard WiFi with internal antenna routing.And the case! it is pleasing to look at! I'm not embarrassed to have it on my desk, compared to the cheap Blue LED and EXTREME ANGLED PLASTIC of most aftermarket or boutique PCs. It has a pleasing backwards slant and rounded but not over the top corners.On the bad side: No surprise here, but the included keyboard is miserable, and the mouse isn't all that good either. barely adequate. I replaced the keyboard with a Unicomp Buckling spring keyboard, and a Logitech MX518 Gaming mouse. But that is about it.All in all a neat PC, just so easy to get going with it, no endless tweaking. Open box, put on desk, plug in and go!

I bought this on Black Friday, thinking that I had got myself a bargin, and a decent platform from which to upgrade...Before it had arrived, I already had in my mind that I would upgrade the video card, as even my old video card could out perform the GTX 640. Once it arrived, I checked out the specs inside as the information on this website is very limited.When shoping for videos cards I was torn between dual GTX 660 ti's or a GTX 670, however, inorder to upgrade the video card, I would have to upgrade the PSU as it is only a 460w. The next road block is that it only has one PCI Express slot, so even if I were to go with a GTX 670, I wouldn't be able to run it in SLI further down the road.The next issue for me is that it only has one 3.5" slot for another hard drive, and this just wasn't going to work.Having looked at what I would have to upgrade, I quickly realized that what I was really going to be paying for would be the ram and the processor, as everything else would have to be upgrade, either right away or at a later date.I really wish that I could have found more specs on the inside of this machine before I made the purchase.Please note that I can't review how the machine performs, as after being disapointed with the build, I've returned it.