Dell Studio XPS 8100 desktop PC

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'Studio XPS' is engraved into the side panels of the Dell Studio XPS 8100.

Dell Studio XPS 8100: Design and specifications

The Dell Studio XPS 8100 is quite attractive for a desktop computer. Although the chassis is beige, it’s a far cry from the boring and bland desktop towers of the past. A glossy black, smooth front lends a sense of quality to the tower. Card slots are arranged on the front panel along with a hidden DVD-RW drive and two USB ports behind a sliding panel. An additional two USB ports can be found, along with headphone and microphone jacks, in a recessed section on the Dell Studio XPS 8100’s top panel.

Our review unit used an Intel Core i5-650 dual-core processor clocked at 3.2GHz. It had the standard configuration of 4GB of DDR3 RAM and two 500GB hard drives in a RAID 1 configuration. Its GeForce 310 video card isn't one that is offered on Dell's Web site, and it's significantly less powerful than the GeForce GTS 240 that the XPS 8100 will ship with, not to mention the optional GeForce GTX 260 video card. No monitor is included in the base $1399 bundle, so you’ll need to shell out a few dollars more unless you already have one handy.

The Dell Studio XPS 8100 has two front-mounted USB ports behind a sliding door.

Adding more powerful components does drive the price up quickly. When we opted to customise a Dell Studio XPS 8100 system build on Dell’s Web site with a Core i7-860 processor over the standard Core i5, 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB and a 23in monitor, the price jumped from its $1399 base to $1969.

Two more USB ports and headphone/microphone jacks can be found on the Dell Studio XPS 8100's top panel.

Dell Studio XPS 8100: Performance benchmarks

As a mid-range system, the Dell Studio XPS 8100 does not have the raw number-crunching power of an Intel Core i7-based desktop PC. Its Core i5 processor is more powerful for most tasks than slightly older Intel Core 2 Duo high-end CPUs, though. We compared it to some consumer and businesses desktops to gauge its performance. Our Studio XPS 8100 came with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit preinstalled, so it could make full use of its 4GB of DDR3 RAM — a 32-bit operating system would not be able to utilise all of the system’s memory.

The Dell Studio XPS 8100’s performance is similar to the XPS 8000 we reviewed in November last year. It recorded a very similar iTunes result to the XPS 8000 when encoding 53min of WAV files to 192kbps MP3. But it recorded a slower time in the Blender 3D test. The Blender test can be scaled depending on how many CPU cores you have, so the extra physical cores in the XPS 8000 system are responsible for the 10sec difference in performance. As for 3D performance, with a GeForce GTS 240 or GTX 260 graphics card the Studio XPS 8100 should have plenty of grunt to play most recent PC games at a moderate resolution and detail level.

Conclusion

As a mid-range, all-purpose desktop computer, the Dell Studio XPS 8100 provides more than acceptable performance figures. It’s not especially expensive in its standard configuration, although if you want to add in more powerful components the price rises dramatically. If you’re looking for a PC that’s got enough power for your family’s needs — whether it's Web browsing, music, a bit of video editing or some light gaming — the Dell Studio XPS 8100 will do the job.

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