Dell XPS 8960 Desktop - 14th Generation Intel Core i9-14900K Processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, 2TB SSD, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 12GB GDDR6X Graphics, Windows 11 Pro, Onsite & Migrate Service - Platinum Silver

I got this as just a platform. I suspect a number of the components in it might have been replaced by cheaper ones by an "associate" store, but at least the Core i7-14700 & the motherboard are pure Dell. I got caught in that scam a month before. Turns out a "new" Dell had actually been bought by somebody in the United Arab Emirates a year and a half earlier who scavenged much of it & replaced it with no-name stuff they must have bought on a Chinese site (a common ripoff by associate stores on many similar shopping sites). I called Dell, gave them the serial number & it turned out my "new" computer had already run off one and a half years of its 2-year warranty. Returned it with a notation to Amazon to check out anything from this associate store.With this machine, I replaced the 1TB M.2 SSD with a 2TB M.2 SSD, put another 2TB M.2 SSD in a second provided slot (GOOD STUFF, DELL!), put a third full-sized 2TB SSD from an unused box into one of the 2 extra enclosures & a 10TB spinner disk in the other extra enclosure. It came with 32GB memory, on one stick, leaving you free to add a second to go up to 64GB of DD5 memory (a lot of 32GB computers use both slots for 16GB cards & you have to buy 2 32GB cards to upgrade to 64). I had 2 quality 32GP memory sticks unused, so I replaced it with two very high quality matched ones. It supports WiFi 6E, though I have a better PCIe wifi/bluetooth card I'm going to put in if I can track down a bluetooth connector port like the machine I scavenged it from. It also supports 1GB Ethernet, not just 10/100. I put in a gaming-style GeForce GPU that provided outputs for 4 1k/4k monitors. I added a powered 10-port type A USB 3.2 and a 6-port powered type C USB 3.2 adapter as this only has 5 type A 3.2 ports & 2 type C 3.2 ports (and 2 type A 2.0 ports) - my needs are NOT the normal ones, so you should be good with 7 3.2 ports 7 and 2 2.0 ports.Note that my usage is different than most people's so don't think you all have to buy or scavenge a lot of other stuff. I don't even run Windows 11 on it. I started off by changing the bootup order in BIOS to first look for a thumb drive before the C: drive (hold down the F12 key when the DELL logo appears on bootup). Then I put an ISO of Ubuntu Linux 24.04.1 LTS on a thumb drive, booted from it & installed Ubuntu Linux on my primary SSD drive. Nothing from Microsoft or Google was ever allowed to start up before being entirely erased & replaced with Linux. I can live with Windows 10, and (with teeth clenched) with Windows 11 2H23, but I WILL NOT ALLOW AN UPGRADE TO OVERLY INTRUSIVE WINDOWS 2H24 OR LATER ONTO ANY MACHINE OF MINE. It's a hacker's heaven, taking & storing screen images every couple of seconds (so the Windows AI can find older material by examining all that you have done previously - as can a hacker). I saw a video of a woman who wanted to find an ad from months ago about a brown handbag. She entered "brown handbag" & the page was recalled. And the page only had a picture of a brown bag, it didn't even use the word brown anywhere in the text). Brrrrrr...CONS:-- Only has ONE output for a monitor and it is DPORT. My GeForce Graphics Card has 2 DPORT and 2 HDMI ports. I currently run 2 32" 1080p monitors with a 43" 2160p (4K) UHDTV monitor in the center as my main monitor (warning - system text is small & as far as I have found on Ubuntu, can't be changed).-- Does NOT have a CD-ROM/DVD drive. You'll have to buy a USB one if you need one. Luckily if you don't need to write DVD, you can buy one on the cheap. Some laptops are too thin for a CD-ROM/DVD, but a Tower? That 4th drive enclosure where I have my disk drive is at the top front & could have easily been a CD-ROM/DVD drive instead. Good grief, DELL! Should I get out my Dremel or just use my USB one?-- Would have liked a second short PCIe port, a tad more power (I'm using the max & if I wanted to upgrade to a Core i9-14900K, which uses the same CPU socket, I'd have to upgrade the power supply. i9s are notorious power pigs & if you get a laptop with one, don't expect very much battery life. The i7 is much less of a power hog and the 14th generation ones are plenty fast with 20 cores running at 2.1GB.

Always had good results with Dell. Good value, nicely built, no problems with setup. Less bloatware compared with other brands.

Received the XPS 8960 with the RTX 4070 graphics card just a couple of days ago which I purchased for running primarily Lightroom and Photoshop. The quality of the materials is high, the chassis is easy to open for upgrades, I'm finding the fan noise to be minimal, and the machines are shipping with the BIOS update required to address the Intel I9 processor issue that others have reported. The Lightroom performance has been very impressive with large RAW images loading near instantaneously. So far, so good. My one issue is that the writeup on Amazon's website led me to believe that the box shipped with a single 2TB m.2 SSD leaving a space for a second SSD HOWEVER that is not the case. This system actually ships with two 1 TB m.2 drives limiting my storage upgrade options. (There is an open SATA 3.5" bay that could be used for another drive.)

Bought this computer for home use. Everything went fine until I decided to do mandatory updates. Computer crashed to black screen, beyond recovery. Returned to Amazon for a refund (still waiting). Decided to take a chance on a second unit because I had good luck with Dell in the past. Set up and recovery of my cloud files went perfect...then went to Dells own website for updates. This time did critical updates one by one. Very first one, BIOS update, crashed the unit again. This time, called Dell support to let them know that their own updates are the problem. Tech support clearly from India, not understandable, not interested that their own process is the problem. After the usual reboot tries, the inevitable turn it in for replacement. Now have to return to Dell before they send a replacement because I would incur a third $2500 charge to credit card without having received a refund yet. Dell says they guarantee replacement will not have same issue, but I'm not very confident and now I am in limbo for days? Weeks? Until they process my return and replacement. So you think they would offer something for my trouble, upgrade? Discount?...nope, "we don't do that". Remember that quote when dealing with Dell.

Veryfast

The XPS computers were the best thing Dell did. This one was easy to up date from the old computer. Lots of room for additional drives.

14th gen for less than $1000. I love it >> very fast with alot of extras. I hooked it up to a 32" monitor & speakers. I'm in "seventh Heaven" now.