Good From the Factory? The Dell Studio XPS 7100
by Dustin Sklavos on July 7, 2010 4:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Systems
- Dell
- AMD
- Radeon
- Studio XPS 7100
Dell Studio XPS 7100 User Experience
The performance of the Dell Studio XPS 7100 is mostly an amalgam of known quantities; we've run some cursory benchmarks but performance generally falls in line with what we know of the Phenom II X6 and the Radeon HD 5870. Suffice it to say, if you're going to be doing any gaming or media work, the XPS 7100 in this configuration is more than up to the task.
Well, almost. It may very well be the SB750 attached to the single Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drive, but the system just doesn't feel as snappy as a machine with a faster storage subsystem might. Anand is a major proponent of using an SSD for the system drive and a large mechanical drive for storage and that's probably a wise investment here. Also consider that for heavy video work, it's extremely wise to use two separate drives anyhow: one to render from, a scratch drive, and one to render to, a project drive. The storage subsystem remains the slowest component of the modern PC, and anything you can do to mitigate that will help.
What's a nice change of pace from not too long ago is the lack of bloat the XPS 7100 ships with. Windows 7 already does a great job of obscuring bloat (between hiding icons in the system tray and just plain running well), but there's very little here to obscure. The included Dell software is mostly useful, offering driver updates, online support, and use of Dell's “DataSafe” online storage service. If there's an odd outlier it's Dell's dock software. The dock offers sets of shortcuts at the top of the screen not totally dissimilar to the dock in Mac OS X. It's attractive and was probably more useful when Vista was shipping, but the revised taskbar in Windows 7 renders it somewhat redundant.
There are really only two troublesome apps that come bundled with the XPS 7100. The first is, ironically, Dell's own update software. Dell's software is certainly useful, but it has a habit of just randomly popping up whenever you're doing something else, right in the middle of the screen. So if you're, say, running benchmarks all day, you might find your run completely ruined by this random interloper. Likewise, the bundled McAfee Security Center isn't at all unusual to see in factory machines, and remains one of the most obnoxious and least useful PC security suites on the planet. It nags you to complete the setup and register it just to be able to uninstall, though you can force-kill via task manager and go into the Control Panel for the uninstall process.
Overall, the experience of using the Dell Studio XPS 7100 was surprisingly a joy. The system is definitely high performance, the factory install was very clean, but most importantly and probably best of all, it just runs coolly and quietly. One might expect a factory computer to be fairly noisy – especially given the 125W Phenom II X6 processor and the 187W ATI Radeon HD 5870 – but even under load the XPS 7100 is actually remarkably quiet.
To give some sense of just how wonderfully quiet the XPS 7100 is, consider this: I have my own custom built desktop running in an Antec P182 case. I use an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650, overclocked, under a Xigmatek S1283 cooler. Hanging out below that is an ATI Radeon HD 5870. All the fans in my case are on low and the processor cooler is configured in the BIOS to run silently and only spin up under extreme load. My case produces the softest of hums, and that hum actually drowns out the XPS 7100. Some reviews – including our own – suggest the Radeon HD 5870 is pretty loud, but I honestly haven't heard it.
Of course, none of that would matter if the insides of the XPS 7100 were marinating in their own succulent juices, but lo and behold, the card and processor run surprisingly cool. Just putting your hand under the bottom vent on the face you can feel a quiet intake fan, and the clean cabling and spacing inside the case likely contribute to the excellent thermal characteristics.
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harbingerkts - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
My situation was fairly similar, except with the deal that Dell was running at the time I purchased, I could match the price on Newegg if I bought the cheapest component in each class on Newegg... but the Dell came with a 2 year warranty with accidental damage coverage.If you haven't already, throw even a cheap 64GB SSD in there as a OS/Game drive. The difference in speed vs the HD they put in is night and day. Just make sure to request the full OS / Application disks from Dell if you do.
adonn78 - Thursday, July 8, 2010 - link
I am a bit afraid oft he 460 watt budget generic Power supply unit used int hsi system. On top of that I would be afraid of the system overheating int he summer months with the standard air cooling heatsinl/fan. Other than that it seems like a powerful system for the price. but I'd rather get a system from ibuypower or cyberpower off of newegg for about the same but with liquid cooling, better PSU, and a nicer case with better cooling.Wolfpup - Wednesday, September 1, 2010 - link
I've had to switch to a notebook so haven't been paying as much attention to Dell's desktops anymore, but skimming over the Studio XPS 7100 and 8100, it's looking like they still offer a nicely put together system at a reasonable price. Back in the day I bought about half my systems from Dell, and half built myself, and never had complaints with Dell...I think they use standard power supplies on most systems too, so it's probably fine even if you need more power down the line. (Plus my Dells were always quieter than my systems I intentionally bought to be quiet using Sonata cases and the like.)lapasta - Friday, October 29, 2010 - link
nice systembut for that config $1,149.99 damneddddddddddddd
im dutch and i know im a little paying to much attention on what is the cheapest LOL
but cmon
550W stille power supply
Processor AMD Phenom II X6 1055T SIX-Core (AM3, 8MB, 6 x 2.8 Ghz, boxed)
Mainbord Asus M4N68T-M AM3 (support 8GB ram)
Video nVidia GeForce GTX 460 768mb gddr5 Directx 11 HDMI out
HDD 500GB S-ata2 7200RPM
memory KINGSTON 4GB DDR3 1333MHZ PC10600
sound 7.1 High-Definition Audio
networking LAN 10/100/1000 Mb/s
USB 2.0 connections 4x Usb 2.0 at the back, 2x USB 2.0 at the front
Microfoon connection 1x at front
headphone 1x at front
DVD dr5ive Samsung Dual Layer DVD-R +/- 22x
garanty 2 year inclusief with support
and the best part now in stores for only 500 EUR thats 692,85USD
god i love holland lol
peace out greetings pasta
Bruce20 - Friday, November 18, 2011 - link
I bet this thing would be great for a home <a href="http://musicoven.com">music recording</a>. I need to get me some better supplies than i have.qzyxya - Thursday, January 17, 2013 - link
I have this computer and i'm wondering what speed of ram to get, I know it has 4 ram slots and can accept 16gb (i assume), but idk what speed.Also what is the name of this motherboard?
DocWoo - Friday, April 21, 2017 - link
It's 2017 and my Dell XPS 7100 still is running, Twice I had to vacuum dust out of the CPU when the fans got noisy. Last time, the heat sink stuck to the CPU and removing it pulled the AMD chip out of the socket. Pins bent, but I re-straightened them, put it back in the ZIF and it booted, LOL. $200 for an obsolete CPU if I had to replace it.But I will be updating.
DocWoo - Wednesday, August 29, 2018 - link
Still running the XPS 7100 on Win 7 after 6 years. This summer, I put in a GeoForce graphics card, a 650W power supply, and a solid state C: drive. FWIW, windows experience at 7.5. No gaming. Just Lightroom and video edits.DocWu - Sunday, December 15, 2019 - link
Nine years after I bought it. Still running. Upgrade to Corsair 450W PSU and Geoforce GT1030. 12GB RAM. 256GB boot SSD and several HD's. Windows 10.AMD CPU fell out and I had to spend several hours straightening the pins. If that hadn't worked, I would have bought a new box.