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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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.