Dell Studio XPS 8300 review
This Sandy Bridge system has refreshingly different styling and some interesting features, but it's out-performed by almost every other comparable system on the market.
Specifications
3.3GHz Intel Core i5-2500K, 8GB RAM, 21.5in 1,920×1,080 display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
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Not everyone wants their PC to look like a looming black obelisk. Although Dell’s Studio XPS 8300 won’t be to everyone’s taste, it’s compact, unassuming and reasonably quiet. It’s only when we opened it up that we realised how much has been sacrificed to keep the PC small. The plain metal interior looks cheap, everything is cramped and cable routing is haphazard.
There are spare drive bays for one 5 1/4in drive and two 3 1/2in disks, but there are only two spare SATA connectors. The other two are occupied by a DVD drive and 1TB hard disk, and none supports the faster SATA III standard. The motherboard’s backplate provides just four USB ports, an eSATA port, six 3.5mm stereo sockets for analogue surround sound and an optical S/PDIF output. Another four USB ports and a memory card reader are built into the top and front panels. Dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi is integrated onto the motherboard.
The PC has 8GB of RAM in two 4GB sticks, which leaves space for another two modules. There are also two PCI-E x1 slots and one PCI-E x16 slot, but all of them are occupied. The x16 slot is taken up by the graphics card, a 1GB ATI Radeon 5770, while the two PCI-E x1 slots are occupied by a USB3 card that provides a solitary port on the back panel and a Hauppauge WinTV HVR-1200 TV tuner for viewing and recording digital TV. A media centre remote control is also supplied.
Basic Specifications | |
---|---|
Rating | ** |
Processor | Intel Core i5-2500K |
Processor external bus | 100MHz (Sandy Bridge DMI) |
Processor multiplier | x33 |
Processor clock speed | 3.3GHz |
Processor socket | LGA1155 |
Memory | 8 |
Memory type | PC3-10666 |
Maximum memory | 32GB |
Motherboard | Dell 0Y2MRG |
Motherboard chipset | Intel Sandy Bridge |
Ports | |
USB2 ports (front/rear) | 4/5 |
Firewire ports (front/rear) | 0/0 |
eSATA ports (front/rear) | 0/1 |
Wired network ports | 1x 10/100/1000 |
Wireless networking support | 802.11n (dual band) |
Internal Expansion | |
Case | midi tower |
PCI-E x1 slots (free) | 2 (0) |
PCI-E x16 slots (free) | 1 (0) |
Free Serial ATA ports | 2 |
Free memory slots | 2 |
Free 3.5in drive bays | 2 |
Hard Disk | |
Hard disk model(s) | Hitachi DeskStar (HDS721010CLA) |
Interface | SATA2 |
Total storage capacity | 1,000GB |
Graphics | |
Graphics card(s) | 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770 |
Graphics/video ports | 2x DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort |
Sound | |
Sound | Realtek HD Audio |
Sound outputs | 7.1 line out, optical S/PDIF out, stereo line out, mic in |
Speakers | none |
Removable Drives | |
Supported memory cards | SD, SDHC, CF, Memory Stick PRO Duo, MMC, RS-MMC, Micro Drive, Smart Media, xD |
Optical drive type(s) | DVD+/-RW +/-DL |
Display | |
Viewable size | 21.5 in |
Screen model | Dell ST2220L |
Native resolution | 1,920×1,080 |
Screen inputs | DVI, VGA, HDMI |
Other Hardware | |
Keyboard | Dell Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard |
Mouse | Dell M787C |
Software | |
Software included | Microsoft Office Starter 2010, one year DataSafe Online Blackup 2GB, 15 months McAffee Security Centre |
Operating system | Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit |
Operating system restore option | restore partition |
Buying Information | |
Warranty | one year collect and return |
Price | £889 |
Details | www.dell.co.uk |