Dell XPS 8940 review
Our Verdict
The Dell XPS 8940 isn't the most powerful gaming desktop on the market, simply its reasonable price and smart design assistance it stand out from the contest.
For
- Modest, quiet design
- Enough of ports
- Good performance
- Physical media drive
Against
- No extremely powerful configurations
- Limited storage options
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Dell XPS 8940 isn't the most powerful gaming desktop on the market, just its reasonable toll and smart blueprint aid information technology stand out from the competition.
Pros
- +
Small, repose design
- +
Plenty of ports
- +
Good operation
- +
Physical media bulldoze
Cons
- -
No extremely powerful configurations
- -
Limited storage options
Dell XPS 8940: Specs
Price: $two,136 as reviewed
Processor: Up to 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K
RAM: Upward to 128 GB
Graphics Card: Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Storage: Up to 2 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD
Accessories: None
Ports: USB-A, USB-C, SD card, 3.5 mm audio, Ethernet, DisplayPort, HDMI
Size: fourteen.5 x 12.1 10 6.seven inches
Weight: 13.9 lbs
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Dell XPS 8940 won a "highly recommended" accolade for best gaming desktop at the Tom's Guide Awards 2021 for gaming.
The Dell XPS 8940 is very much my kind of gaming PC. It's small, information technology's quiet, it's straightforward, it'due south affordable, and it'due south packed with exactly the right components y'all'll need to play the latest games at a steady clip.
This is non the kind of car you lot'll buy because it lets you creepo every graphical setting up to the max. Instead, it's the kind of machine that would look perfectly at domicile in the near buttoned-upward part, but notwithstanding has enough power under the hood to tackle your favorite games later hours. In an era where working from home is more common (and necessary) than e'er before, the Dell XPS 8940 exhibits exactly the right balance betwixt work and play.
Still, at that place's no denying that even the fanciest builds of the XPS 8940 may feel a little underpowered, compared to competing gaming rigs. Its storage options aren't ideal for gaming, and its disc drive feels like an reconsideration — even if y'all spring for the fancy Blu-ray upgrade. At times, I wondered whether the XPS 8940 looks so much like an office PC because it simply lacks enough confidence in its own components.
Either way, the XPS 8940 is a stone-solid choice for both gaming and productivity, and while it's not exactly inexpensive, information technology won't chew through your banking concern business relationship similar Dell's fancier Alienware lineup. It might only be 1 of the best gaming PCs for center-of-the-route gamers who value aesthetics, efficiency and desk space. Read our full Dell XPS 8940 review for more information.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Price and availability
The Dell XPS 8940 is available from both the Dell website and Amazon, although Amazon limits which configurations you tin buy. The prices and configurations on Amazon will vary significantly over time, equally Amazon does little to differentiate between the models it sells and the models it allows third-party vendors to listing.
The Dell website, on the other hand, lets you customize a Dell XPS 8940 with a variety of unlike options, from CPU to GPU to wireless card. The cheapest model we could build costs $1,667, and includes a 10th-Gen Intel Core i7-10700 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti GPU, a DVD drive, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD storage, a standard Dell wireless card and Windows 10 Home edition.
At the other end of the spectrum, you could spend a whopping $3,471 on an XPS 8940 with a 10th-Gen Intel Core i9-10900K CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, a Blu-ray drive, 128 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD + 2 TB HDD storage, a Killer Wi-Fi 6 carte du jour and Windows x Professional edition. At this cost, I personally feel you'd exist improve off with a system that offers an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 and pure SSD storage instead, but yous'd and so have to make compromises in overall storage and RAM capacity.
Our review model was somewhere in the center: a $2,136 configuration with an Intel Core i7-10700K CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, a Blu-ray drive, 32 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD + two TB HDD storage, a standard Dell wireless carte and Windows x Home edition. Eagle-eyed readers may remember that this is actually very like to the Tom'due south Guide examination rig we congenital, and then with these specs, I felt right at abode.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Pattern
Praising the Dell XPS 8940 for its physical design seems a little odd. After all, prebuilt gaming PCs often live in desk-bound crannies or even on floors; they're not really conversation pieces. Just the XPS 8940'due south unobtrusive appearance is a force, not a weakness. Information technology's not a dull black box, but it's too not an overdesigned modern art piece. If anything, it looks like a standard office PC, and that means it'll be right at dwelling near anywhere.
Commencement off, in spite of its powerful components, the XPS 8940 is pocket-size. The whole device measures fourteen.v 10 12.1 ten 6.7 inches, letting it sit comfortably on even cramped desks.
The front has an attractive crosshatch pattern that doubles as ventilation; the back has a variety of ports and the sides are just apparently plastic. You can get the organisation with either a black or white chassis; they both look fine.
The XPS 8940'south weight is also worth noting: Around xiv pounds, depending on which components you pick. Considering that Dell'southward Aliewnare Aurora R11 tin exceed 40 pounds, it's remarkable to get about as much power from a system that'due south i-third of the size.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Ports and upgradability
The Dell XPS 8940 has plenty of ports, both on the front and the back of the organization. On the front, at that place'south an SD carte du jour slot, a iii.five mm audio jack, three USB-A ports and one USB-C port.
On the dorsum, there are three iii.5 mm audio ports, six USB-A ports, an Ethernet port and a power port. You get various DisplayPorts, HDMI ports and DVI ports depending on which GPU you go for.
But what's interesting is that the motherboard also has a DisplayPort and an HDMI port built in. This could be useful if you lot always need to troubleshoot the GPU. The lack of additional USB-C ports is disappointing, however. Information technology's already pretty common for devices to accuse and connect via USB-C, and it'due south not like that functionality will become any rarer in the adjacent few years.
It's fairly easy to upgrade the XPS 8940, at to the lowest degree. You don't need any tools to open upwards the chassis; you just need to remove ii thumb screws and a side panel.
Once within, things are a picayune cramped, due to the PC's small profile. Simply you can swap out the GPU or add together additional storage easily enough — and gamers and video professionals will almost certainly want to add more SSD infinite, equally time goes on.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Gaming functioning
From a qualitative perspective, the Dell XPS 8940 plays games quite well, especially on a QHD monitor. From a quantitative perspective, it's somewhere in the heart of the prebuilt gaming PC pack. In other words: It performs exactly every bit it should, given the toll.
For this review, we compared the XPS 8940 with Dell's own Alienware Aurora R11, likewise equally the Corsair 1 i200. The former is much more than expensive and powerful than the XPS 8940, but gives a expert thought of what you can expect from the XPS 8940 compared to a premium gaming PC. The latter, on the other hand, is a hybrid gaming/productivity model, just similar the XPS 8940.
We benchmarked the XPS 8940 past measuring frame rates (in frames per second) in a number of popular games, at both 1080p and 4K settings, with graphics turned up to "Ultra" presets. Here's how the three machines compared:
| Dell XPS 8940 | Alienware Aurora R11 | Corsair 1 i200 | |
| Assassinator's Creed Odyssey (1080p / 4K) | 86/fifty | 88/61 | 77/49 |
| Grand Theft Auto V (1080p / 4K) | 135/42 | 154/62 | 126/44 |
| Cherry-red Dead Redemption ii (1080p / 4K) | 86/33 | 107/47 | 87/32 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (1080p / 4K) | 118/41 | 136/59 | 117/44 |
By and large speaking, the XPS 8940 was not as strong as the Aurora R11, and was about on a par with the One i200. Considered on their ain merits, the XPS 8940's frame rates were good, however. Every game far exceeded 60 fps at 1080p resolution, and every game exceeded 30 fps at 4K — not bad for a midrange organisation. (Anything above 60 fps is especially good; anything below 30 fps tin can have detrimental furnishings on gameplay.)
The comparison with the One i200 is particularly interesting, however, equally the i200 is also a machine that aims to split up the difference betwixt gaming and content cosmos. While the i200 possesses an older GPU, it still retails for $4,500 - hundreds of dollars more than than the most expensive XPS 8940 configuration. Granted, it's not an apples-to-apples comparing, every bit the One i200 is an older automobile. But information technology does demonstrate that the XPS 8940 is well-positioned to fill up the gaming/productivity niche, both in terms of aesthetics and performance.
In my own experience, the XPS 8940 performed just the manner I wanted it to, running the latest games at lx+ fps in QHD resolution. I tested the machine with Historic period of Empires III: Definitive Edition, Doom Eternal, Octopath Traveler and Terminal Fantasy Xiv, with the graphics turned upward to Ultra whenever possible. The gameplay felt polish and fluid in every title. Ameliorate still — the fan didn't get peculiarly loud, a far cry from the Aurora R11's jet engines.
My merely real complaint here is well-nigh the XPS 8940'south SSD setup. No matter which configuration you get, you'll probably wind up using the HDD for the bulk of your games. Especially in a world of PS5s and Xbox Series Xs, HDD loading times are merely non all that fast anymore. You lot'll accept to either limit your game library or install new storage yourself, and neither pick is neat for a make-new computer.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Overall operation
The Dell XPS 8940 is no slouch as a productivity auto, although it'southward non quite as powerful equally these systems go, either. On the Geekbench 5.three criterion, which measures a organisation's overall functioning, the XPS 8940 scored a 9,019. (It's an absolute value; higher numbers are better.) Granted, that's significantly less than the Aurora R11'south eleven,099, but information technology'south significantly more than directly-upwardly productivity machines, which tend to hover in the 4,000-6,000 range.
Likewise, the XPS 8940 didn't actually measure up to the Aurora R11 or the One i200 in terms of file transfer speed. The Aurora R11 copied 256 GB of files from an external at a rate of i,191 MBps; the One i200 did so at a charge per unit of 1,026 MBps. The XPS 8940 reached speeds of only 439 MBps — less than half the speed of its competitors. Whether this matters in do, of course, depends on how often you lot transfer huge files.
From a qualitative standpoint, however, I had cipher to complain nigh with the XPS 8940. Equally I write this review, I have ii chat programs, two give-and-take processors and two Windows utilities open, as well equally 2 instances of Chrome with at least a dozen tabs open, including some with videos and music. This consumes nearly 1/3 of the organization'due south RAM and less than 10% of the CPU. Short of gaming or hardcore video/animation work, it's hard to imagine I could do anything to really tax the XPS 8940.
It'southward also worth mentioning that the XPS 8940 is one of the few systems I've reviewed lately to still come with a physical media drive. I didn't find this as useful as I'd hoped, mayhap because and so much of my media drove is already digital. The drive didn't load my Blu-ray discs all that fast, and one of them didn't load at all. (Why the XPS 8940 wouldn't play nicely with my copy of The Simpsons Film, in particular, I can but imagine.) Nevertheless, the bulldoze is there if y'all need it.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Software
Similar most Dell machines, the XPS 8940 comes with a few system utilities, McAfee antivirus and not much else. The utilities — organisation updaters, mobile phone connections, a DVD player and and then along — aren't really worth using, merely they're non worth complaining nearly, either. (Oddly, the Dell Cinema app is a one-stop store for all your streaming services, merely doesn't include content from the arrangement's own DVD/Blu-ray player.)
Information technology's worth pointing out, however, that McAfee is every bit intrusive and inefficient equally ever, constantly popping upwards to ask for more money, without doing a significantly meliorate chore than Windows Defender. But uninstall this one, unless y'all already have a subscription.
Dell XPS 8940 review: Verdict
The Dell XPS 8940 pulled a neat pull a fast one on: It fabricated me wonder why Alienware machines have to be so big and loud. Sure, Alienware systems are more powerful than the XPS 8940, but the XPS 8940 packs a lot of performance into a minor, dignified, quiet bundle. It's not "cool," just would you rather show off your gaming PC, or the games yous can run on information technology?
In the aforementioned price range, I don't call up the XPS 8940 outdoes the Corsair Vengeance i7200. But the Vengeance i7200 is a gaming system, starting time and foremost, while the XPS 8940 is definitely more of a hybrid. Which one appeals to you more than volition depend on how much work you lot have to do — and how many games y'all have to play.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/dell-xps-8940
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