Dell XPS 8960 Desktop: i7-13700, 16GB DDR5, 512GB NVMe SSD, RTX 4090 24GB Expired

Their motherboard are not standard ATX format. Their power supply will also not be standard. It will have modular cables that will be just long enough to reach the proprietary connectors on their proprietary motherboards.

The value of these components will be less than a self-build as there is no upgrade path for any of it. You can't reuse the case or carry over the power supply for a future upgrade. Dell will not send you a new bracket for water cooler heatsink to make it compatible w/ future sockets. Every component inside will essentially be single use. This adds up to hundreds of dollars of expenses on your next PC build (unless you just buy another prebuild).

$2k setup with only a 512gb ssd 😢

There are a few reasons that make this not a good deal. This is besides the lackluster cooling (WHY microATX?!?!).


First, 16gb ram, and the motherboard only has 2 ram slots (WHY microATX?!?!). You're gonna need at least 32gb if you want to do any sort of multitasking or like opening 41 Firefox windows like me (currently utilizing 24gb of 64).


Second, the hard drive is way too small. Many AAA games (that you'd need a 4090 for) these days are >100gb. Along with Windows, you'll only be able to fit 2-3 games on it. My previous rig had a 500gb SSD and I had to constantly uninstall old games to play new ones.


Dell charges an arm and a leg to upgrade these, ($300 for a 2tb nvme, $450 for 64gb of ram?!), which you can buy yourself for roughly half the price. As others have already posted, the rest of the components are highly proprietary and usually very low quality (they don't even list the model number in the specs), which makes upgrading or even replacing certain components a nightmare. If you're tech savvy enough to do this on your own, you'd probably be able to build yourself a much better machine for just a few hundred dollars more if you are scouring PC hardware deals. Dell is putting the 4090 carrot on a stick and baiting people into overpaying for basic QoL upgrades.


Finally, you don't *have* to buy a "gaming" case with a tempered glass side panel. There are many muted case options if you're seeking a sleek professional look, and not have to compromise on cooling. Check out the Fractal Design North or beQuiet! cases for example.

The gatekeeping is real... 16GB is more than enough for multitasking. Even intensive tasks like Solidworks simulations or video editing would only see very marginal gains going to 32 GBs. This is also DDR5 RAM instead of the common DDR4, which makes this a beast compared to DDR4 PCs.

You are way worse off building one your own. The cheapest 4090 right now goes for just under $2000. Add in every single other component, including the OS and a keyboard (because this includes a keyboard even if it is a mediocre one) and you will end up spending easily between $2700-$3000 building it yourself rather than purchasing this deal for $2295.

video editing would only see very marginal gains going to 32 GBs.

You are way worse off building one your own.

The cheapest 4090 right now goes for just under $2000.

which version comes with this dell? the 4090 founders edition is $2049 on amazon, and $2200 at newegg, but the 3rd-party cards are $1800.

Irrelevant. They all use the same guts. Though I am struggling to find exactly which model ships in this Dell? Where is it listed?

The problem is the Dell uses shitty parts, and it's ugly.

Motherboards are the first to go, and dell's are absolutely bottom barrel for Power delivery VRM designs. Once it blows, you have to get another one that fits, and that one is just as bad quality if not worse than the first (if buying used).

$2k setup with only a 512gb ssd 😢