Dell XPS One 27 Review: The Premium All-in-One
by Dustin Sklavos on May 29, 2012 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Dell
- Intel
- XPS
- Ivy Bridge
- Kepler
- all-in-one
- 600M
- NVIDIA
System Performance
Ivy Bridge is a very strange beast. It's been generally underwhelming for enthusiasts given the middling overclocking headroom stemming from poor thermals, though my experience with it is that you can hit roughly the same overall performance levels as Sandy Bridge at lower clocks and lower power consumption. Where Intel's new chips were born to succeed are laptops and all-in-ones, and I think Dell's XPS One is going to be a solid proof of that.
The PCMarks skew heavily towards the SSD caching technology in Dell's XPS One, but the system also features the fastest CPU and fastest graphics of any of the all-in-ones we've tested. Advances in process technology may allow the top end to edge up, but in thermally constrained spaces they can result in big, big performance gains.
Intel's Core i7-3770S allows Dell's XPS One to soundly beat last generation's top 95W processor (outside of the i7-2700K), but the 3770S chops off a third of the i7-2600's TDP. Performance is up across the board, allowing the XPS One to offer a tremendous amount of power for what's fundamentally a family appliance.
The GDDR5 on the GeForce GT 640M also allows the GPU in the XPS One to stretch its legs, delivering at least twice as much graphics performance as the last generation all-in-one from Dell. At this point I'm convinced going with anything but GDDR5 on all-in-one graphics hardware is unacceptable; either stick with the IGP or go all in. Power consumption isn't as big of an issue with all-in-ones, and the bandwidth afforded by GDDR5 is essential for providing a decent gaming experience at 1080p.
Since the other all-in-ones were benchmarked using our old gaming suite, we only have results for the Dell XPS One 2710. That said, generally speaking it has the chops to game at 1080p. I wouldn't push it to the panel's native resolution of 2560x1440, but you can still have a decent gaming experience on the XPS One. This is a massive improvement over the previous generation. And for those who might otherwise complain about not gaming at native resolution, remember that 2560x1440 on a 27" panel gives a small enough dot pitch that running non-native isn't quite as disctracting as on lesser LCDs.
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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.