garykung

All outlet stocks are as-is. No more customization by Dell.

Refer to the online manual of the XPS model you purchased, under "Specification".

I purchase whatever the cheapest. If this means eBay, eBay it is.

Prioritize your upgrade. In your case, memory will be my last item to upgrade.

FWIW - just having a SSD will significantly improve the overall performance of the entire PC. Also - a performance graphic card has sufficient memory to handle graphic processing. Depending on your workload, you may not even need to upgrade the memory at all. Beside, if you have sufficient, having more memory does not mean it will improve the speed.

If the XPS does not come with a SSD, then upgrade it to a SSD first. Then the graphic card. The last will be memory.

Once you start using the XPS, you will know if you really need more memory.

Coolers

Repectfully disagree. I'd strongly advise trying to find a matching 16gb stick on eBay for best value (assuming they're available at cheaper than a new one). That will still leave you with 2 free DIMM slots for a future upgrade to 64gb.

javabytes

I thought this was a laptop, not a desktop. Then yeah 2x16gb will still leave two free slots.

puchong

Thanks again for the sage advice.

Yes, the XPS comes with a SSD - although just a 256GB one. Is the OS loaded into this? If so, how much space is left for use?

My XPS comes with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5. Any idea how many monitors it can support?

Will delve into the online manual as soon as I get the PC.

garykung

Yes, unless you buy a n-series desktop. But AFAIK - XPS does not come with n-series.

How much space you have left depends on whether Dell puts a restore partition on the SSD. The good news is unlike HP, Dell does not put junk into its image. With the restore partition, I would say 256GB is definitely enough for software only. If you do gaming, then it can be tough if you don't uninstall games. Also - you may not able to store anything additional to the SSD. Most people in this case will either add another SSD (SATA is fine) or simply get an external HD instead. I would prefer an external HD if the data is not critical for the computer to operate.

BTW - a friendly advice - you should rather add storage instead of delete the restore partition. This is a mistake many have made.

2. Not sure about 3.

Note - given XPS no longer supports SLI, so basically, whatever the card can do is the max. While I have not looked into it yet, I am pretty such that Alienware (by Dell) can support SLI. But it is extremely overpriced.

(Alienware was an outside brand, but acquired by Dell later. In the past, XPS was considered the top model before Alienware. That's why even XPS is still top of the line, it is not as top as the past.)

This is the best advice. Each computer (desktop or laptop), as well as MB, is designed differently. It is impossible to say what configuration will be the best.

You may not have to follow exactly what has mentioned in the service manual. Yet, the manual gives you some guidance on how far you can go.

Solid brands does not mean quality is solid.

Samsung is a solid brand as well. Yet, I have problems with it occasionally. Now I prefer SK Hynix over Samsung.

javabytes

Yes, the OS is loaded onto the SSD. A drive advertised at 256GB is going to be a little under 240GB in Windows, and that's before the space Windows itself consumes for the OS installation. Some space might also be reserved for a recovery partition. I'd expect in the ballpark of 200GB-210GB.

It should have 3 output ports. You should be able to drive all 3 especially at HD or lower resolutions. You're likely to start running into performance issues or even outright limitations if you're trying to drive 3x QHD or 4K displays, especially since the output ports are HDMI and DVI. For instance, DVI will only really go up to QHD, and you need to make sure you have a dual-link cable otherwise it's not going to work at full resolution. The HDMI ports will output 4K @ 60Hz... but I'd be surprised if the GPU could drive that with satisfactory frame rates under much of a load. This is ultimately a budget-range video card... well-suited for routine use but don't expect high performance for gaming or other graphics-intensive tasks.

DYKWIA

I'd disagree with this. The restore partition offers little, and if you need to restore, you then have to go through all the update process (which can takes hours).

It's far easier to just download the latest version of Windows 10 from Microsoft and install that way. In fact, I believe you can actually do it all in one go these days (similar to MacOS).

The activation will be automatic, and the drivers will generally be fine - I can't remember the last time I had to manually find a driver because Win10 didn't load it.

Coolers

I'm not sure of the precise layout of a XPS desktop, but it's very possible that you could run a third monitor off any onboard HDMI on the I/O. Might require fiddling with BIOS settings. Or Dell might have locked it if it detects a dedicated GPU. Shrug

garykung

I understand this is a matter of opinion. But you seem to forget the fact that not everyone can access to a Windows 10 Image USB easily. At the minimum, you need to have access a second computer in order to have one.

Also - Microsoft has made the upgrade process is quite easily. Based on my experience, a newly installed OS will take about 30 minutes to the latest version. Specifically, if the Windows 10 version in the restore partition is 1607, you can use the upgrade tool or Windows 10 Image USB for 2004 to get it up to the latest version easily.

1. Because the Windows 10 is installed by an OEM image, there is no activation. Windows 10 is set to be activated. That's why the key used may be different from the one embedded in the MB.

2. Whether Windows 10 will install drivers automatically depends on how new the hardware is. Even in refurbished condition, OP has bought a new computer. So Windows Update may not have the latest drivers.

Since it really depends on the design, as well as the interface, I don't want to say without uncertainty.

nkedel

While they don't support SLI, you can put in additional video cards for more monitors in additional slots. It's not clear which generation of XPS desktop he got from what's been said here, but as far as I know, the only non-SLI systems with multiple 16x slots are in the Precision line. There will almost certainly be the option of putting one or more inexpensive PCI-E 1x video cards which will fit in the 1x slots and which do great for 2D graphics (not so much for 3D, and I'd doubt the XPS would have a big enough PSU for multiple high end 3D cards.) Most are rather dated models. Easiest example is: https://amzn.to/33tbtAm

XPS, Precision, and Alienware are all aiming at different market segments; there's no strict "top," although Dell has mostly abandoned the desktop side for XPS and in that sense purely for desktops you're correct.

Also possible. Might even be able to do two off the motherboard if it uses displayport rather than HDMI (newer Intel chips do daisy chaining just fine) or both displayport and HDMI.

Error 601

Who in this year of our lord MMXX is still using SLI and why?

It's a waste of PCIe lanes that can be used for nvme, it generates a ton of heat and power consumption.

garykung

When you need to use multiple displays...

SLI is not just for performance...

Error 601

How many displays are we talking about here?

puchong

Ideally, I would like to have 4 monitors, but 3 would also do

nkedel

I think you're confusing "multiple video cards" with SLI.

SLI (or AMD Crossfire) is actively counterproductive for most uses multiple displays; it's intended for getting more performance on a single display (or virtual display spanning multiple monitors for gaming, on AMD Eyefinity and whatever the NVidia equivalent is -- but with big monitors getting better and cheaper, it's not worth bothering with.)

If yu want multiple independent displays beyond what one high-end graphics card can support (and depending on the resolution, 4 isn't that much for one higher-end card), two independent cards (which can be on totally different drivers) will work BETTER than SLI because they don't need the coordination overhead of a single virtual screen.

For a lot of professional use, separate dual video cards will do better since the coordination overhead with SLI-style rendering isn't needed, and a lot of the rendering will be into off-screen buffers anyway (e.g. accelerated video processing or photoshop filters.)

For mostly 2D use with only light 3D (like browsers), one low-end discrete card (let along a lower-midrange one like the 1650) and on-board graphics will be plenty in almost all cases for 4 monitors. Maybe not 4x 4K, but it might work even then - Intel 8th-gen Core integrated GPUs (not sure about older ones) technically can drive 2x 4K screens although in my experience the performance will be poor for more than light-duty use at 4K. I'm not sure if that's true for the antique models available as 1x cards but any of the current-generation bottom of the line cards like the GT1030 or the Radeon 530 should be able to handle 2x 4K screens for light duty use.