Unboxing and Review of the Dell XPS 8920 Desktop

Dear Steemit Friends,

Today I am sharing with you the Unboxing and Review of the XPS 8920 Desktop from Dell. Those of you that are aware of the Dell brand, know that the XPS line of PCs is Dell's premium and higher-end version of their desktop and laptops, with the exception of their Alienware brand.

As usual, we will start with the unboxing of the unit

I can remember buying my first XPS when the brand first debuted several years ago. The XPS was created in order to compete in a market where gaming performance and PC Mod design were key. Over the years, the PC itself has evolved from a heavy piece of solid machinery to this new sleek, yet still solid, compact sized PC packed with power.

Video Source - Dell.com

Although the system is not as heavy and huge as it's predecessors, that does not limit the power embodied within this PC. Its Streamlined design includes the following components and specs:

• Intel Core i7-7700 3.6GHz
• 24GB Non-ECC 2400 RAM
• 256GB SSD Primary HDD
• 1TB Secondary SATA HDD
• Radeon RX 480 8GB Graphics Card (Flashed up to RX 580)
• DVD +RW
• Standard Dell Keyboard and Mouse
• Windows 10 Home

All of the above packaged and purchased from Costco for $699.00 USD during a promotional flash sale. It comes packaged with a standard 2-year warranty, however, because I used my Costco credit card, it came with an additional 2 years Costco Concierge extended warranty for a total of 4-years coverage.

The PC itself weighs roughly 22 pounds and has a solid-built chassis that is easy to disassemble and open. Like most Dell PCs, it is a toolless chassis, which most anyone should be able to work with. What I like about the PC is it's black and sleek design.

After unboxing and plugging in all of the peripherals and monitors, my first experience with the PC started with a no video experience. I had initially plugged both Monitors into the Display Port and HDMI ports on the expansion video card. After unplugging 1 and trying again, I still had no video. I then tried plugging the video into the onboard video card and it booted up allowing me to set up the PC.

Because I wanted to use this PC for gaming and graphics intensive software, I was not satisfied with using the onboard video as a solution. I had also planned to use the AMD card as well for mining Ethereum when I wasn't using the PC. I researched online and found that several other people had the same issue and the fix was to disable the onboard video in the BIOS. In the past PCs typically detected installed GPUs and automatically disabled the onboard video or assigned the video which the monitor was plugged into as the primary.

I followed various directions in the forums to disable the onboard video, however, each fix I tried did not resolve the issue. I finally decided to think back to my age-old experience as a Dell phone support tech and the many lessons I trained as a level 2 agent and bring it back to basics by opening the system to check and reseat all the cables and components. What I found when I opened the chassis was that the Video card did not have a power connector attached to it and that it was not plugged in.

I plugged the cable in re-connected the monitors and powered the system on. The PC booted to the operating system and worked perfectly. The number of reported incidents and concerns with no video out-of-box is a mark against the quality control for Dell. For me, this plug is not something that can easily just come loose during shipping and is a markdown to the engineering team for ensuring a product is tested properly before shipping.

The PC Benchmark/Performance test for the XPS 8920 from PCMag are not bad. They are not the best I have seen, but reasonable for an average gamer like myself.

The PC runs smoothly without any lag and is very quiet. Becasue I also use this PC to mine Ethereum on occassion, it handles extremely well. The RX 480 provides a steady hashrate of about 25 MH/s. I have left the PC on for weeks at a time without experiencing any degredation in performance.

The PC has room for expansion and eventually I will upgrade bothe the graphics and memory card allowing me to add the RX 480 to one of my other GPU mining rigs. Because of the PCs small size, it allows you to save desk and/or floor space. It has several vents to allow for maximu heat ventilation in order to keep the system cool. The PC has plenty of ports with 4 front USB 3.0 ports, an SD card slot, and mic and headphone jacks. On the back of the PC, there are four more USB 3.0 ports, a USB 2.0 port, a USB-C port, an HDMI port, a DisplayPort connection, an Ethernet port, and three audio ports. The system also has 802.11ac Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.0 built in.

Image Source

This is considered a midrange PC and competes well with other more expensive desktops at a more affordable cost. If you decide to purchase this PC, you will get a well-built PC (with the exception of the no video issue I encountered) with plenty of ports and storage to suit your everyday needs. In terms of gaming and multimedia, it has handled everything I have thrown at it from graphic design, to UHD 4k video without missing a beat.

Overall I would recommend you buy this PC if you aren't into building your own. It is a great starter PC that is fairly priced and packed with enough features and power that will last you for several years.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the Dell XPS 8920 Desktop. If you have any questions, inputs, or feedback, please feel free to post a comment below. I would also appreciate your Upvote, Follow, and Resteem if you feel this post was informative and will help others.