Please evaluate this desktop computer

[Bean Counter]

http://www.costco.com/Dell-XPS-8700-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-2GB-Graphics-%7c-Windows-7-Professional-%7c-Blu-Ray-Reader.product.100119053.html

Id prefer to buy from Costco for their amazing warranty and service.  I could customize a similar HP but this Dell is currently $200 off. 

Primary use for the computer is for photo and video editing. NO GAMING. I use Adobe Lightroom which on my ailing Crapple Macintrash laptop generates a ton of heat and is killing it . So I think I shouldn't get another laptop or even an all in one, as much as I'd like to as it would be easier to move about the house,  which I do a lot with the young kids.  This computer tower is much smaller than most though, standing 16" tall.  It has 2 TB storage which is nice, and also 256 SSD where I presume ill keep the OS and master Lightroom catalogue so it runs nice and snappy. Sounds like 16Gb ram is all one needs for now so at 24 this is ahead of the curve.

How has dell been in the last few years?  I bought one of their desktops in the early 2000s and it was great to me but I heard in the latter part of last decade that their qc took a dive. Just rumor to me though.  is the 2Gb graphics a waste of money since i am not a gamer or will I appreciate that down the road when I start editing videos?.  Can I get more for less elsewhere?

[Bean Counter]

For $550 cheaper, theres this HP, without a Blu Ray reader or the SSD http://www.costco.com/HP-ENVY-700qe-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7.product.100139264.html

[Fl0und3rz]

Personally, Dell over HP.  Wife has a recent Dell laptop and is pleased.  Haven't had to deal with CS, so no comments about that.  HP is on my s-list, so you could not currently get an HP recommendation from me.


For the specs on the first, that is a pretty well-spec'd machine.  If you don't think you need the video card, then drop it.  It's an easy add later.  But I might just keep it, if the money was not an object, and you don't want the fuss of adding it.


Whether the photo or video editing would be helped by the graphics card depends on whether the software is written to take advantage of the cards functions and hardware.  It's hard to say without specifics and research, but if both (HW and SW) are of the same generation, I would be surprised if a commercial app did not.  Best to check online for the specific software and graphics chip combo.

[bknilvr00]

Have you considered building one? Im fairly certain you could piece one together and come in a few hundred bucks cheaper than the dell. Its suuuuuper easy. just plug everything in into the case and fire it up.


Added:  I actually had the precuser to that dell now that i look at it. It was a decent rig, but not really worth what i paid. I ran into problems once I wanted to start swapping out components because Dell's motherboards are not universal.

[Fl0und3rz]

Have you considered building one? Im fairly certain you could piece one together and come in a few hundred bucks cheaper than the dell. Its suuuuuper easy. just plug everything in into the case and fire it up.

Problem is that, after all the time spent researching compatibility, selecting, accumulating, and assembling, you've lost any economic incentive, if your time is worth more than minimum wage.  It is a labor of love.

And you often end up buying top shelf parts, which also defeats any economic incentive to build.   

After building many, I will buy my next one and save my efforts for a backup/media server build.

[bknilvr00]

Have you considered building one? Im fairly certain you could piece one together and come in a few hundred bucks cheaper than the dell. Its suuuuuper easy. just plug everything in into the case and fire it up.

Problem is that, after all the time spent researching compatibility, selecting, accumulating, and assembling, you've lost any economic incentive, if your time is worth more than minimum wage.  It is a labor of love.

And you often end up buying top shelf parts, which also defeats any economic incentive to build.   

After building many, I will buy my next one and save my efforts for a backup/media server build.

All very good points. After being frustrated with crappy pc's and having a guy in the know at work, I decided to make the leap. And I am really happy I did. I used to play the xbox alot but was getting annoyed at paying for xbox live and not really getting much graphically. I spent 1200 bucks, and have been loving it ever since. Plan on making a big purchase on a new pair of video cards. Like alot of things its a running project.

To the op...   Check out newegg, they have alot of pc packages which are pretty awesome. And they have them at every price point. I bought all my crap through them and will continue to do so.

[Fl0und3rz]

+ 1 on Newegg if you go that route.

[curtdiesel]

Go with the HP out of those 2.  Put the extra $550 to better use.  The is really zero difference in HP and Dell.  You buying from Costco for their warranty support is a big plus as you said.  If you run into problems later with HP or Dell the experience will be identical with each.  (talking to foreign tech support if you are lucky enough to have the problem while the PC is still under warranty).  You are wise to choose the Core i7 processor.  I don't think you will notice any difference in 16 or 24gb of ram even with your video editing.

FYI: 16" Tall is actually a little big these days.  The mainboards inside tower PCs pretty much dictate how small they can be.  11.5 - 14" tall PCs are very common now.  The ones you have chosen are in the extreme class except for their lack of high end Video Card that you have already showed you do not need by stating you are not interested in Gaming at all.

What do you think of windows 8.1? 
http://www.costco.com/Dell-Inspiron-3000-Desktop-%7c-Intel-Core-i7-%7c-Windows-7-Professional.product.100126326.html
This is an $800 Dell option.  Not in the same class as the HP for only $50 more.  It does come with windows 7 Professional though instead of 8.1 

Windows 10 should be released in the Spring of 2015 by the way.  Looks like it will be really nice.

I agree with your thoughts on not building your own but have not been able to stop myself from doing it yet though.

[Fl0und3rz]

I agree with your thoughts on not building your own but have not been able to stop myself from doing it yet though.

Wait until you have to track down an intermittent fault on a power supply on your primary work machine.

[b23]

I'm kind of curious why you aren't staying with Mac/Apple? 

My pc is a little less than 1.5ys old (windows 8, i7 Processor) and at about the same time I bought my new pc we bought our daughter a new Mac Book Air.  At the time I had ONLY used Windows based pc's.  Since my daughter has had her Mac Air I've had the chance to learn their way of doing things compared to the pc's I've always used.  Since spending a little time with her Mac Air, when it's time for me to get a new one, it'll be a Mac.  Mine has the good i7 Processor, big hard drive and more RAM than I'll ever need but her Mac just does everything a little better and even though I've been pretty lucky and haven't had any viruses, it's no secret Macs "rule" when it comes to NOT getting viruses where as with PC's it's more of a when you'll get one versus if you'll get one.  It's not often you have a Mac user that switches to PC's, typically, it's the other way around.  Also, I always thought graphics was one of Mac's specialties.

[Seahawk12]

I will never buy another dell.
I've had two and as soon as the warranty runs out they crap out.
For the kind of money you're looking at spending I would find a machine that can be more easily upgraded.
Between all the junk-ware, the compatibility issues, and dell trying to sell service programs I just don't think it's worth doing business with them.
Of course, they've been around a long time and that means there are plenty of people that will say I'm nuts.
If you live near a city then it may be worth your while to shop around a few PC shops.

[runamuk]

I love my HP laptop and it worked fine for photo editing which i dont do much of but was required for my degree.  Anyway I had a dell desktop and it had problems off and on and never could get anyone to take responsibility dell would say its a software problem software would say hardware problem etc.  I wont own another.
I also buy from newegg and when I ran an office and had to play network admin we bought an awful lot from new egg for the office as well great prices and great service.

And most of the elitist photography buffs will tell you all the good photo editing software is designed to interface best with a Mac.

[magnanimous_j]

That computer is more than good for what you do. I’d keep the SSD. The most important thing for you is your monitor. Get one that prioritizes color recreation, because a lot of them sacrifice color accuracy for refresh rates.

[b23]

And most of the elitist photography buffs will tell you all the good photo editing software is designed to interface best with a Mac.

That's what I was always told too.  Like I said earlier, it's not often, you hear of a Mac user that wants to switch to a PC, usually it's the other way around.

[FC]

That dell with the ssd will make a great machine, an ssd for the os is the biggest upgrade that most people don't make to their machines due to being cheap. Personally I would use Windows 7 on it over 8 but either way you will be happy with it. If you were into building your own pc you could save some cash and build a faster machine probably but pc building isn't for everyone.

[Bean Counter]

That computer is more than good for what you do. I’d keep the SSD. The most important thing for you is your monitor. Get one that prioritizes color recreation, because a lot of them sacrifice color accuracy for refresh rates.

I talked with some photo pros and this is what they say. For that reason, I'm avoiding "bundled" packages which have a good generic monitor and maybe everything is nice and cheap, but wont let my system shine. Sigh--here comes monitor calibration. 

That dell with the ssd will make a great machine, an ssd for the os is the biggest upgrade that most people don't make to their machines due to being cheap. Personally I would use Windows 7 on it over 8 but either way you will be happy with it. If you were into building your own pc you could save some cash and build a faster machine probably but pc building isn't for everyone.

  You're talking about me again?  You'd be proud--I'm getting over this slowly but surely.

One dude told me that it might be better to have the SSD + an i3 processor than an i7 with all spinning disks. Seems like they haven't gone down in price much which is why Crapple Macintrash is putting several 256GB SSDs instead of larger into some configuration.

+ 1 on Newegg if you go that route

I keep forgetting about them. Is there warranty anything comparable to Costco? Costco lets me return within 90 days if its a headache and warranty for 2 years.

[Bean Counter]

I'm kind of curious why you aren't staying with Mac/Apple? 

My pc is a little less than 1.5ys old (windows 8, i7 Processor) and at about the same time I bought my new pc we bought our daughter a new Mac Book Air.  At the time I had ONLY used Windows based pc's.  Since my daughter has had her Mac Air I've had the chance to learn their way of doing things compared to the pc's I've always used.  Since spending a little time with her Mac Air, when it's time for me to get a new one, it'll be a Mac.  Mine has the good i7 Processor, big hard drive and more RAM than I'll ever need but her Mac just does everything a little better and even though I've been pretty lucky and haven't had any viruses, it's no secret Macs "rule" when it comes to NOT getting viruses where as with PC's it's more of a when you'll get one versus if you'll get one.  It's not often you have a Mac user that switches to PC's, typically, it's the other way around.  Also, I always thought graphics was one of Mac's specialties.

Mac's fit and finish are beautiful. Plus yes you definitely get less hiccups with the tightness of their hardware and software integration. That said, some of their hardware is a lot more marked up, part for part. They still sell i5 processors and 5400RPM hard drives, for instance.

My principle complaint with Apple is that they are into being green and have switched to a lead free paste to connect components and what not. As I said earlier, Lightroom generates a TON of heat and that has caused the more  brittle lead free paste to crack and cause loose connection between the discrete graphics card and the logic board (aka the motherboard). This causes the screen to spazz out. We then have to shut the computer down and wait an hour or more for it to cool off and then reboot it up to half a dozen times before it starts up again. Apple knows about this but doesn't seem to give a crap. They told me to pay them $300+ for them to put in a remanufactured logic board using the same free faulty thermal paste    Fools. I wrote several levels of the company, very nicely and patiently, all the way up to Tim Cook himself, and they told me to go jump in a creek. I don't spend $1,500 on a laptop for it to last less than two years. Its a great machine when its up and running, but if this is the attitude they're going to take towards customers I'll buy a PC for 50% cheaper. 

[Katmai Guy]

Costco store has a Dell X8700 for a grand.  Same processor, 16 GB ram, 1TB HD, Nvidia GTX 745, 4GB DDR3 graphics card, no blu-ray but a 16X dvd player.  If you don,t need the other 1TB and the 8GB, you can save 500$.
.

[Bean Counter]

Thanks. Does that have the solid state drive too? 

Btw that $1,500+ I paid for my MacBook "Pro" was for the refurbished model. $250 more if it were new! In general I'm not against refurb and this experience doesn't change that--my issue was a design flaw whether it was new or used.

[FC]

Something else you might consider is looking around on Dell's scratch and dent site. I've bought my last two laptops there with a substantial savings. Buy one that you know to have more than one drive slot and then buy an ssd to replace one of the drives. You can even use Dell's own backup software to create an image (super easy to do) before swapping the drives so that you can do a factory install on your ssd.

[Bean Counter]

Cool!