Comments Locked

69 Comments

Back to Article

  • lurker22 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Just buy an iMac. Dell continues to be lousy engineering.
  • lowlymarine - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Well, I'd say at least wait for the IVB refresh of the iMacs (which should land inside a month or so). When that happens, the prices on these will have to com down; they're barely competitive with the current-generation iMacs as it is.

    Also, remember when Apple used to be the company using hilariously anemic GPUs in their computers while everyone else had higher-end chips available? When did that table turn? A 640M as the highest-end option in a 27" AIO, with the XPS branding no less, while Apple offers a 6970M in last years model? Ridiculous.
  • tipoo - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    I would have to agree, the iMac seems like a downright great value now that other companies are trying to target the same range. And if it gets upgraded to retina displays this next refresh...
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Look at the pricing on a 27" iMac with an i7 CPU, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDD, SSD caching and Blu-ray (they don't offer these two options, actually), and a 6970M before you hand Apple the crown for AIOs. If you're looking purely at the GPU, Apple wins. If you're looking at the overall design and aesthetic, I'd call it a toss up, but I'd assume the Apple 27" iMac is able to cool the CPU+GPU better so we'll give Apple another win. And then you get to the price.

    It looks like a comparable current-gen iMac 27" with a better GPU will run you $2550 online at B&H, and you still lose Blu-ray capability and the SSD caching. I'm not sure if Apple will support Intel's SSD caching with the next generation iMac either -- Apple has been pretty careful about what new techs they support, particularly in the SSD realm. And of course the bottom line is that if you don't like OS X, you'd be crazy to purchase a Mac of any form. I know plenty of people that like OS X, but I know just as many that hate it; I happen to fall into the latter camp.

    Still, it boggles the mind that Dell couldn't just have a second HSF cooling the CPU in the 2710 to fix the temperature issues.
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    You could always install 16 GB SO-DIMM DDR3 plus 128GB Samsung SSD for like 260 USD if you care to do the upgrade. As it might not be straight forward. An external Blu-ray drive costs you 70-100 USD and a Windows retail license of W7HP costs you some 170 USD. That would enable you everything including blu-ray playback. Might be a 600 - 700 USD upgrade though. Just installing ram though costs you 32 USD and requires no disassembly. A 2TB drive is 150 USD though if you don't want to disassemble the case. The i7 is 200 USD addon too, and not Ivy yet. If graphics isn't that important I would go with the HP Z1 Workstation though.

    On a system with mSATA the upgrade would obviously be to install a 128/256GB mSATA SSD. Not some Intel RST feature. It's just Intel Windows driver software any way.

    Not that Dell here isn't unusably reasonable in it's configure. We mostly see 20-23" low end machines around 1000 dollars with TN displays otherwise. But they don't seem to have taken the build seriously restricting themselves to slightly low power cpus. I guess using a 3770k would have speed up things a bit.
  • protomech - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    "Also, remember when Apple used to be the company using hilariously anemic GPUs in their computers while everyone else had higher-end chips available?"

    No. I bought an ibook back in 2002 because it had a 100 mhz bus G3 and a mobility radeon 16 MB. Contemporary PC laptops were either integrated graphics (i810 chipset) or a slightly larger form factor with discrete graphics and lower battery life.

    While the powerbook titanium / aluminum line never really had high-powered discrete graphics .. they offered basically the best GPUs that could fit in their 1" form factor. Charged an arm and a leg for it too..

    Excepting a brief period in 2006-2007 (mac mini and macbook with intel GMA 950), Apple has typically used a pretty high base level of graphics hardware in their systems. They've only rarely offered truly excellent graphics options (6970M in current iMac is a big exception), but by offering a high baseline they've been able to build their operating systems with a minimum level of guaranteed graphics performance.

    Perhaps not unexpectedly, the iPhone / iPad lineup has always offered some of the best graphics available among contemporary smartphones.
  • Dustin Sklavos - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    Think the Mac towers. For a long time, the bottom rung configuration of systems that have almost always started at a brutal $2,499 almost always included what seemed like the worst dedicated GPU they could find.
  • AssBall - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    That still doesn't present a good argument from a reasonable perspective. You don't need a high powered gpu in an i-mac, because you aren't going to run any software that stresses it. imacs and aio in general are for the fung-shui crowds. A lesser gpu in a 27" will run games fine at max with a good subsystem. Gamers don't buy imacs, or any macs, for gaming. They are a nice piece of usefull furniture but nobody should pretend they aren't a luxury item. The rest of us will sb happy to settle for an upgradable, cheaper, run of the mill pc with more versatility.
  • vol7ron - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Actually, I know someone that purchased one of these. I was skeptical at first, but was quite surprised [in a good way] when I had used it.

    Mind you, they don't do any serious performance-driven use (gaming/video editing), but video and office products worked well and it had a few neat touch-driven games that came with it.
  • guidryp - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Sounds like you are making things up. Did you read where it says there is "NO Touch Screen"?
  • Bownce - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    The Magic Touch touchpad works very well and don't leave prints on the screen.
  • Patanjali - Thursday, November 8, 2012 - link

    There is a version WITH touchscreen.
  • damianrobertjones - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    No.

    I like to actually change parts without alarms going off within the machine.
  • scottwilkins - Monday, June 18, 2012 - link

    These guys with no clue what good engineering is, and buy Macs? What an idiot.
  • Pc2u - Saturday, September 8, 2012 - link

    Done that, there to slow, dell xps have much better spec much faster and it's designed for windows unlike the mac, no boot amp crud to deal with, updates etc.

    I've got 2 iMacs 27, the only reason I got em was for the resolution, now I can get my hands on a pc all in one with the same screen that's designed for windows (a far better system for an easier, quicker and logical execution for most things) happys days, the iMacs will soon be on eBay, don't like apple never have, some of there products are amazing, but I don't like there policies or OS

    Look out dell here I come
  • cfujii - Monday, September 16, 2013 - link

    Well, Dell fixed the heat issue. I have a Windows 8 version of the XPS One 2710 and it has a great touch screen. It comes with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard (which I replaced with a PCKeyboard unit). The temps are all down from the review. The fans are running about 1200rpm. I got this package for photo editing using Photoshop CS6 and it works great!
    I wouldn't buy a Mac because my background is in IT and the company I just retired from is running Dell. It's been doing well for us so that's why I went to Costco and got the XPS One 2710 for $1600. The new version of the XPS One will have the Haswell processor and the 650M GPU. I was going to wait for the Haswell version but Costco offered $200 off because they are replacing the model I bought with the Haswell version.
  • Blibbax - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    It's worth noting that you could game at exactly half resolution (720p) on this screen and avoid any of the normal issues of LCD scaling.
  • Blibbax - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Well, I suppose it's 1/4 resolution really, but you get the idea. Each pixel rendered would be exactly 4 pixels on the panel.
  • guidryp - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Not really. I tried this on my 30" 2560x1600 screen.

    It looks better scaled to 1920x1200 than it does to exactly half (1280x800).

    Apple gets away with this trick because they keep the same size screen and cram in 4 times as many pixels that are too tiny to see.
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    GPU-scaling or the hardware scaling of the screen? Normally I guess you do it on the GPU now days.
  • ciparis - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    The title is either missing some context-setting words, or it's one word too many.
  • blackmagnum - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    I'd wait for new hardware complementing the new OS before buying a computer. It is just too close.
  • piroroadkill - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    What's so great about 8?
  • ananduser - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    For those of us that are meh about the Metro interface it represents the best Windows to date. More featured and even lower hardware requirements than 7. Simply a better OS. The best consumer OS on the market.
  • tipoo - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Apart from a touch screen, what would compliment it?
  • Monkeysweat - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    How come you didn't compare against a 27" iMac, it's direct competitor? Even the current generation gets you a quad core i7 and a 6970 1GB video card for the same price as the dell?

    I would say that is comparing apples to dells haha

    But seriously, compare it to the direct competitors - i don't think it would stand a chance, use bootcamp to run windows on the mac and have at it.
  • Rookierookie - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    You know something is wrong with your product when you put it side-by-side with an Apple and the Apple looks like great value.
  • JarredWalton - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Apple's cheaper 27" iMacs are decent, but for $1870 you lose:

    CPU performance (i5 vs. i7)
    SSD caching
    Blu-ray
    4GB RAM
    1TB of HDD space
    +you gain GPU performance.

    Or you pay a minimum of $2200 and still lose:
    SSD caching
    Blu-ray
    4GB RAM
    1TB of HDD space
    +you gain GPU performance.

    Or alternately:
    CPU performance (i5 vs. i7)
    SSD caching
    Blu-ray
    1TB of HDD space
    +you gain GPU performance.

    Yes, you could upgrade the RAM on your own, but the CPU difference is pretty major, and there are quite a few items that Apple currently just doesn't support (SSD caching, Blu-ray). And if you start comparing the iMac 21 with an Inspiron One 21, the story doesn't radically change (though we have to wait for the new Inspiron One models to show up before we can really do a pricing head-to-head).
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Yeah just buy a iMac or a HP Z1. No competition. Others are just worthless. Or at least not good. The iMac and the HP Z1 can be configured as a decent workstation, or to do gaming or whatever your preference is better then other integrated monitor stuff with very weak mobile graphics despite high res screens. Most others also use TN screens. At least you can run the latest games at some fairly decent settings on a HD6970M 2GB even if not at native res. That said it is not worse at doing all-in-one then previous attempts.
  • jabber - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    ...is just wrong.

    Look at most tablets, they are a health hazard of hazy greasy residue.

    Nope.
  • jabber - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Ahhh crap. As I saw it as an All In One I would have thought Dell would have put in a touchscreen, I guess they have heard about whats round the corner?

    Forget it....
  • IKeelU - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Is it just me or is everyone jumping on the "One" bandwagon? This last month alone, I've seen ads for the HTC One (smartphone) and the Nikon 1 (camera), and here I'm reading about the Dell XPS/Inspiron One.

    Maybe marketing people should be given a dictionary and thesaurus when they graduate.
  • michael2k - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    The interesting part is the supplied power information from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3559

    152W Idle, 365W Load, which is much, much higher than the numbers the Dell XPS 2710 posts. What are the thermals for the iMac?
  • Steelbom - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link

    They get hot -- although I don't think as hot as this system, but the fans don't move from 1000 RPM which is practically silent.
  • guidryp - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Look up "Gorilla Arm Syndrome".

    Touch on desktops is simply an ergonomic no-no. A completely wasted gimmick that maybe a few suckers would buy, but nothing to base a product around, regardless of what MS is sticking in their OS.
  • frozentundra123456 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    I agree. Why would you want fingerprints, grease, etc. on a desktop monitor, not to mention that you have to sit and look at it really close. I could see touch on a laptop if you could eliminate the need to carry around a mouse, but not on the desktop.

    The all in ones seem to be popular in the big box stores, but they seem to force too many compromises to me. Run hot, cant replace/upgrade the monitor, relatively weak performance for the price. Basically all the disadvantages of a laptop without the portibility.
  • PubFiction - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Your guys are too closed minded. Many people touch monitors to show people things. No one said you had to get rid of the mouse, but having touch as an option opens up lots of possibilities for new uses.

    If you want to start getting all picky lets just point out the fact that all in one computers are a stupid idea in the first place. Why would you spend the money to put a nice large display in a computer that will need to be thrown out with the computer in 2-3 years when it is simply under powered?

    But the fact is people buy them for various reasons.
  • Voo - Friday, June 1, 2012 - link

    Anyone trying to touch my 30" dells (just monitors) at work or at home would be thrown out of my office/home with broken arms. I mean who in their right mind would want fingerprints on their beautiful screens? My Galaxy S screen is already a huge mess, but at least it's fairly easy to get it reasonably clean.

    Now I can understand the use of a multitouch trackpad, that has real value (though a mouse and mouse gesture support is not too bad either) and much better ergonomics. But nobody in their right mind sits even close enough to their 30" monitor that they can easily touch it, so how's that going to work?

    And yes I don't understand that either - my monitors have an extended warranty of 5 years and I expect them to last much longer than that (my last ones did). Good monitors are still hugely expensive, but at least they are fine for several upgrade cycles.
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Why wouldn't you just use the multitouch trackpad for any gestures? It's not like you need to see your input device. Just as nobody would think of putting the stick shift or semi-automatic gearshift on a touchscreen on the windscreen of your car for you to see. You need feedback but it's not like you get that by putting your whole arm/hand on a screen in front off you. If you have a really large screen it will probably be further away then an arms length any way. It's different on small devices and devices where you don't have to feed in data in some database or business software all day. Those kind of tasks wouldn't even work without keyboard shortcuts.

    All the other alternatives on phones are worse though, say a trackball where the convention just works totally differently. Or better yet make proper use of the keyboard. Apple do have their mind in the right track when they don't try to make OS X into an touchscreen OS. Microsoft has pretty much made Windows Runtime irrelevant and would be better of build on Windows CE kernels and a totally different native SDK. It's not like phones or ARM tablets will be able to run Win32 desktop apps any way.

    You do need to control everything by the keyboard and trackpad on a desktop OS and it needs to come first. Even penable input is more important there, but at a desk you would use a Wacom tablet for the actual pen input.
  • philipma1957 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    dell 2 x 8 gb = max ram
    iMac 4 x 8 gb ram = 32gb ram

    dell gt 640 gpu does not come close to iMac hd 6970m

    dell uses half the power of the iMac

    the dell is a nice apartment dweller all in one. tv dvr htpc

    the iMac can be used for heavier work load.

    one last thing about the dell why not the i7 3770t 45 watts vs 65 watts for the i7 3770s to me this is a real error. the machine is underpowered when you compare it to a loaded iMac. which would be good for an apartment dweller, having the 45 watt cpu would have been the way to go.
  • Tchamber - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    You can't configure the iMac with 32gigs though, and it doesn't even have an option for bluray, and to get an i7 brings the price up to $2500.
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Memory is installable and so is an external Blu-ray drive, you need Windows in Bootcamp though if you don't wish to break DMCA ripping discs. But then again you probably have that BD connected to be ripping discs. So you can get them playbacked one way or another. Otherwise you can pop your BD movie into an 90 dollar BD-player under your TV. The i7 adds 200.
  • dagamer34 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    The point of an AIO is to avoid extra cables and crap, otherwise you might as well build a desktop, it's a far better value and upgradeable too.
  • Penti - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Sure but you can get blu-ray playback on a Mac mini too. LG had a NAS (which they broke) with integrated BD-drive (burner) before, mounting over iSCSI and ripping over the ethernet is fine and clutter-less. Any iMac has a disk drive connected for Time-machine or similar so it won't exactly be clutter free. Power-cable, ethernet and one USB is pretty much fine though. You don't have to get the ugliest ODD ever setting it in front of your iMac on your desk and sit there staring at it all day. It's just a possibility if you need to illegally rip your discs. Not a necessary.
  • Laststop311 - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Shame if they just fixed the temps and noise this thing would be a beast
  • Bownce - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Here are some options I've been eying for my mid-2010 iMac i5 27"
    SSD, eSATA, etc.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/turnkey/iMac_2010_2...

    Not spam. Just a customer looking at the options.
  • Bownce - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Oh yeah, and as of 2010, 32Gb of RAM is supported based on their info.
  • Wurmer - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    True but getting 32 Gb of RAM will add another load of $$$. 800-900 and beside a few users who really need that much RAM ?
  • palladium - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    If you're looking at 32GB RAM, you probably should be looking at a workstation with a hex core i7, not an AIO.
  • sfooo - Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - link

    Wouldn't it be more fair to call the current iMac lineup the 2011/SandyBridge set? Calling it the "current 2012 iMac" implies a refresh that hasn't happened yet.
  • robco - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    I will say I like the fact that the Dell keyboard still includes a numeric keypad. I wish Apple still offered a wireless keyboard with one. But I do wonder if the thermal issue will be a problem for people planning on keeping the system a while. Guess it's a good idea to get that extended warranty. We have the current gen iMac with the 6970M and even playing D3 and other games, the system never gets too loud. If Dell can fix the cooling issues, this would make a nice alternative. I do like the ability to connect other devices to utilize the display, something I hope Apple will allow at some point.

    But as with tablets and phones, it seems when other manufacturers catch up or exceed Apple, Apple releases a new version. I'm sure we'll see Ivy Bridge in the next iMac soon, and probably a GPU bump. I'm not sure what else Apple has up their sleeve.

    So far having the AIO has been nice for getting rid of cable clutter and keeping things neat. But aside from installing RAM on the iMac, everything else is a PITA and involves removing the display.
  • cjb110 - Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - link

    My first thought when you mentioned the lack of cooling, is why the solid back? Couldn't you cover that thing with holes??
  • picklemilk - Saturday, June 2, 2012 - link

    I would really like to see a review of the Z1 it seems to be doing the right things.
  • Wised - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link

    The bechmark scores of the z1 and the dell are almost identical. With the Z1 you get at most a 10% improvement in scores for twice the price. But they are also 2 completely different beasts anyway, one is a zeon workstation the other a home multimedia appliance. Wht is neat to see is how much improved the new intel processors are now you can get zeon level performance on a run of the mill i7.
  • gagaliya - Monday, June 4, 2012 - link

    I just dont understand why those PC Makers refuse to provide us with a decent graphic option for extra cost. The previous generation iMac is the only all-in-one offering a respectable graphic upgrade of radeon 6970m which is still the fastest graphic card in an all-in-one and that was 2 years ago.

    Dell continues to fail with their all in ones by offering such a mediocre graphic with no option to upgrade, dont those guys realize when you shell out $1500-$2500 for a pc, graphic matters.

    I will continue to wait for vizio or imac...
  • Wised - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link

    Completely erroneous, the graphic card specs are only part of graphics performance. The most potent Imac with the "premium" radeon 6970 offers almost identical graphics performance to the One 27 with its more "proletariat" nvidia 640. Graphics performance is a combination of card, processor, memory speed and bus performance, thus having a higer "ranking" card is no guarantee of better graphics execution. In fact the one 27 beats the mac on most graphics parameters.
  • WPLJ42 - Friday, June 8, 2012 - link

    I am glad to see this review. My HP AIO uses an Athlon II X2 250u, with an 18.5 inch screen. It still runs warm, and was very noisy until I unstuck the exhaust fan with compressed air. The Inspiron One 20 and 23 inch models are on Dell's site now. Yes, the 20 is all Sandy Bridge, and the 23 has just one Ivy Bridge. Dell is in error as we speak, as the 23 is listed with i3 and i5 Sandy Bridge CPUs, and HD 4000 graphics. All things considered, including this review, I am disappointed with the Dell desktops. Almost the entire Inspiron desktop lineup is low end CPUs with HD 2000 graphics.
  • Bownce - Friday, June 15, 2012 - link

    Has Dell pipelined the monitor itself yet? I already have an iMac 27" and doubling up with either a Cinema Display or this update to their U2711 is intriguing.
  • AX-Turbo - Friday, June 29, 2012 - link

    Hello!

    Just read this article and I wonder under which conditions the 97° of the CPU was reached, resp. how the "high load" was made - with real, common load-situations, or with the extreme way (e.g. Prime 95 x8 Tasks + Furmark + extreme heat mode) - load, which you usually never reach in day-to-day-situations? Thanxx for an short answer and sorry for my rookie english.
  • Wised - Wednesday, July 11, 2012 - link

    I fail to see what advantage a touchscreen would provide in a multimedia 27 inch screen. One of the main advantages of a big screen is to be farther away, beyond touching distance! Windows 8 touchscreen abilities are for pad and phone use they are pretty much worthless on a largescreen PC, furthermore you can enjoy all the other advantages of windows 8 without any touch features at all, in fact you can disable the metro interface completely. If you wish to use the metro portion of windos 8 you can always use a gesture friendly wireless touchpad like the the one available from logitech or you can opt for one of the new gesture recognition peripherals and not have to touch anything at all :) Lastly regarding the "thermal" issue, unless you are regularly going to be calculating the orbits of the Jovian moon system, you will never be runnig the 3770s processor hard enough to raise the temperature to a critical level. The computer can run 3d games all day long without straining the system, in fact, you can be running business applications and similar software all the time without the fans ever coming into play at all. The thermal "issue" is at best a theoretical one for the overwhelming majority of users, in fact, most will probably never even scratch the surface of the available computing nor video capability, ever. I've been processing 36mp photos, on a constant basis, I have yet to hear the fans. The fact is that considering what this computer is and what its aimed for, its performance is exceptional in all parameters. PC users have been long waiting for an all in one to measure up to the i MAC. Well, here it is, not only does it compete, it beats it in essentially all categories, at , I might add, at a much better price. To get a similarly equipped imac to my 16 meg ram version is around 1K more.
  • NJacana - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link

    My old XPS was replaced by XPS One 2710. So many things are screwed up that I am so sorry I bought it. Finding help is very difficult.

    Have to buy new Photoshop because it says "scratch discs are full" , had to buy new external drive in order to transfer files, Playlists (extensive) were lost, cannot use Slowdowner program because every time I try to download ONE tune to play, thousands come up and it won't function. The Windows Media Center reminds me more of a Chuckie Cheese center. Huge graphics, BUY THIS.BUY THAT.

    What is a musician/photographer doing with this computer???

    Wish I could hire someone who really knows what they are doing to straighten this out, or come up with 3 grand and start over.
  • Wised - Tuesday, July 17, 2012 - link

    Looks to me your issues are software not hardware. With windows transfer I tranferred all my FILES beautifully. PROGRAMS never transfer, you should have known that. Furthermore, welcome to the world of photoshop their licenses are only valid for one computer, thats why I never use Photoshop its a ripoff. Dont blame the hardware for your software mistakes.
  • NJacana - Monday, July 16, 2012 - link

    Also, these MAC/PC arguments over the years are not enlightening, they sound like football enemies. I have never seen anything remarkable PRODUCED by any MAC friend who argues in favor of their iMachine.
  • unsacred666 - Thursday, September 6, 2012 - link

    I removed the built in 32GB mSATA drive, and changed it to a crucial CT256M4SSD3 with 256GB of space. I disabled the intel SRT feature and now using the SSD for windows. Also removed the built in RAM, und put in the faster Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB kit. The built in DW1703 WLAN/BT card is crap too, so i changed this part too! now its a intel advanced centrino 6235 in it. With all this upgrades the XPS27 gets a hugh performance boost, its so awesome! You can change the internal harddisk too! you can change it to one with more storagespace like 3 or 4TB. all components are realy easy to change. for me, the 2TB harddisk is enough, im using it for personal data like videos. like the most seagate harddisks the one in the XPS27 has very high seq. transfer rates, wich is perfekt for my big files.

    additionally i buyed the "ultralink ufi cube" speakers in silver color. the desgn perfectly fits to the XPS27 and brings a little better soundquality.

    sadly, the wireless keyboard and mouse from dell are horrible. they have a poor manufacturing quality and feel 'cheap'. when the microsoft 'wedge' keyboard and mouse will arrive on the market, i will replace the dell ones with them from microsoft. alternativly you can use the microsoft touch mouse and arc keyboard. both also look great with the XPS27.
  • Miss_AngeL - Monday, September 24, 2012 - link

    I was wondering if Dell xps one could be upgradable. Can you describe how did u upgraded it?. On other word, from which side of this machine you can be inside and remove some of the parts?
  • heyyu - Wednesday, October 10, 2012 - link

    Also interested in how easy it is to upgrade this. That would help me know what I need to buy for the baseline. Is it possible to add a discrete video card?

    I'm considering buying one from the Dell outlet. However, I know they will be releasing a 10 point touch version at the end of the month. Not sure if I should buy the non-touch version now or wait for the touch version.
  • ozymandiz - Tuesday, September 25, 2012 - link

    I just bought an XPS one 27. As someone who uses windows software including CAD and graphics programs, this is the perfect computer due to its screen size, performance and price.

    However, my system uses the NVidia optimus system, ie a 640m on top of an integrated graphics card. The latest driver that Dell offer for the nvidia is from 2011, and I need to use the most up to date for my apps.

    Does anyone know how to install the nvidia drivers in place of dell ? I have tried (only works using a 3rd party program like Drivermax) , but suddenly the nvidia performance takes a big hit...

    any thoughts would be super appeciated!

    thanks
  • arctenex - Sunday, November 18, 2012 - link

    Me too! (in addition to Miss AngeL) -- If possible, could you please provide some discussion or details on how to start taking apart to swap out 2x4GB and replace with 2x8GB SODIMM 204-pin PC3-12800 DDR3 1600MHz?
    Having just purchased at Costco, I have about 85 more days before I can't return it (XPSone2710 with touch screen) and go buy an updated (only ? 5mm thin at edges IPS panel) iMac 27" instead.
    I'm looking for the ones you used - Corsair Vengeance 2x8GB - is your XPS an earlier model (that came with Win7) and perhaps using regular 240 pin desktop memory?

    Crucial shows CT3371304 as the 2x8GB to use with XPS2710 (Win8 touch version).
    That has CL=11 latency and ? timing. Newegg showing only Patriot for iMac with CL of 9 - not sure if they are interchangeable with non-iMac e.g. Del XPSone27 aio.
    So what is the CL on the Vengeance you installed?
    What is the max rating of speed for the Crucial Vengeance you installed (PC3-19200 = 2400MHz / 2.4GHz)?
    I could not find SODIMM 204 pin Vengeance on the Crucial web pages.

    I'm concerned, like the ozymandiz poster (below), who replied on Sept 25 with issues trying to upgrade NVidia drivers, since my wife prefers to use PCs not iMacs (from getting to know and use one for Photoshop and burning of DVDs at a community college in photography course work), and is also doing CADD - CATIA and Autodesk stuff...Any thoughts?

    If one looks at the apple.com site notice that the new iMacs are switching from AMD/ATI GPUs to NVidia Kepler Mobile (? also presumably using Optimus = Switched Graphics) in Apple's new updated to be shipping soon iMac 21.5 (Nov 2012) starting with the 640M and going up from there to higher numbers (650M and then on the 27 - ships Dec 2012 to 660M and 675M) seems all other things being equal for a 27" AIO solution, the Apple's iMacs would provide a possible performance edge.
    Yet things perhaps are not equal, the XPSone2710 has 2GB GDDR5 which is perhaps able to make up the difference? Are the iMacs using GDDR3 only?

    Also, there are two different types of IVB (Ivory Bridge) Intel CPUs processors - pin count / packaging - desktop and mobile. Does the new iMac line up use the Laptop version or the desktop version? Their web site showing specifics side by side are not giving out Intel CPU i5/i7 chip numbers (perhaps Apple is being secretive and / or not ordering standard i5/i7 configurations).
    Dell XPS2710 is using desktop 1155 pin processors (i7-3770S in mine), even the $999 HP Envy 23 ts at Costco with i5 is a 1155 pin desktop cpu, whereas the Vizio CA2x(T)-Ay (x=4 or 7, y=0,1,2 for Win7, y= 3,4,5 for Win8) and Lenovo A720 and soon A520? have the QM mobile / laptop CPU, which is a subset for several CPU features (such as Vt-d directed I/O virtualization support) that the 1155 i7 / i5 S support.

    A bit about me, I am a Software Developer, MSEE and plan on using VS2012+Win8 / Win Phone 8 SDK and developing apps for the Microsoft Stores (Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8) to help justify my expenditures on high end ts gear, but could see myself going with an iMac if BootCamp allows me to run Windows 8 like a normal Wintel (Intel / AMD PC) box and if the Apple support for driver updates was going to be better (than Dell, which seems to be barely adequate...not much in the way of updates expected from Dell support site is my expectation, so I won't be disappointed - have had several Dell handhelds (Axiom and Venue Pro) and the amount of Dell supplied updates - other than Microsoft / t-mobile orchestrated pre-Mango and Mango updates to WP7 - was marginal). But short of paying the Apple tax and partitioning an iMac to have say 30% xOS Snow Leopard? and 70% Win8 (or Win7) and hoping to get good Win 7 / Win 8 support for the Switched Graphics, might I actually have better luck trying to make xOS run on the Dell like a Hackintosh? (because I might actually want to do IOS development, even C# apps for IOS using $1800 seat to Xamian? MonoTouch, which seems to require using an Apple XOS set-up, because Apple only allowed, formerly Novell, to supply if they rigged it to require using the Apple version xOS of MonoDevelop, which is also available to run on Linux and WIndows for 0$).

    I am very pleased however, that the Dell All In One - XPSone2710 is using AMI aptivo EFI BIOS and not some in-house Dell BIOS like I've seen on some low end Dell Desktop boxes. That was an unexpected surprise, along with GDDR5 2GB memory paired up with the Kepler 640M. Also, I like the Desktop 1155 pin CPU with its greater capabilities for Virtualization - e.g. VT-d and like all i# (i3/i5/i7) supporting the Microsoft Hyper-V which is required for supporting the WP8 simulator / emulator, which needs i3/5/7 EPT (or SLAT) CPU features.

    I like the feature that the iMac has user installable memory upgrade (presumably they have a small door or cover to access the sockets). I'm not afraid of assembling hardware and other than buying a luggable portable at employee pricing in 1984 from Cordata / Corona, I've built all of my desktop machines from parts and this is a new adventure and somewhat scary thing for me to invest in an AIO.
    If it wasn't for the higher resolution (2560x1440) and touch screen, I'd be settling for spending less by investing in a tower and ips panel instead with an outlay of several hundred $ less.
  • dee_thoms - Thursday, December 13, 2012 - link

    Like most of the reviewers, I was tempted by the specs on the computer and the form factor of an All-In-One. I bought the $2,699 ($3,000) version. Received it quickly in two days, set it up with the user accounts, watched it lock on the Dell screen after the first reboot. That was a Tuesday. After many hours on hold and talking to ineffective customer support, I tried to get an exchange the following Tuesday. The support person informed me that my problem history was not significant enough to approve an exchange. The advise was to return the broken one and purchase another. While the advice was dumb, I did it anyway. The new one came and would not boot up after the first reboot. Technical support is now sending me a Windows 8 disk so that the operating system can be restored.

    Since I have an IT background, I decided to troubleshoot the problem some myself. I normally don't like to do that when I purchase an off the shelf product. I am paying the premium price so I don't have to do this sort of troubleshooting. Anyway, I decided to try since this was the second computer in two weeks. The short version is that both machines have disk related problems. One was a disk boot partition failure and the other was a SSD caching failure.

    I'm now $6k in the whole to Dell. I have two beautiful paper weights. Along with an ever growing disgust for Dell.

    AVOID...DON'T BUY...ETC...ETC...

    Note: If you are one of the lucky few that has a working machine, take a picture of it now so that you can remember it working. Very soon, you too, will be adding to this growing list of unhappy customers.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now