Heat

It comes as no surprise that the combination of the 20” monitor and the actual computer in a compact enclosure generates a lot of heat. The entire top portion of the XPS One has vents to dissipate some of the heat. As such, these vents get very hot, even when the computer is idle. Remember to leave the top portion of XPS One free of obstruction to allow the heat to escape and prevent the computer from overheating.

Noise

Although the XPS One can get very hot easily, it does not make much noise. Even when the computer is under load, you will not hear anything while standing a couple of feet away. There is a soft whisper coming from the fan only in a silent environment while standing less than a foot away — making it ideal for users with low tolerances for noise or who prefer not to get distracted while watching movies or listening to music.

Upgrades

The Dell XPS One offers no easy solution to upgrade any of its components, including the hard drive or the memory. While 2GB of DDR2 memory is adequate for most Windows Vista users, it would have been nice to have easy access to upgrade the memory. It’s also disappointing to see a single 500GB hard drive as the highest capacity offered by Dell on the high end model, especially for a computer that is meant to be used as Media Center PC, and especially when there are 1TB (and larger) drives available. Recording television shows and keeping a lot of media files on the computer will quickly use up all the storage.