Dell XPS 8700 for photo editing?

<p>My Dell PC is giving up the ghost after 8 years so, for a replacement, I am looking at a Dell XPS 8700 for photo editing using Lightroom. I would add an extra 1 TB disc for saving duplicate photos and with a would 60D have fairly large files. The HP <br>

Does this sound like a sensible choice or does anyone have any better ideas at all please? I have seen it suggested that something with a SSD would be better, but does this make any difference for photo editing?<br>

Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>I have a 12GB Ram XPS8700. If you wanna see LR go fast get one. I really like mine. Windows 8.1 isn't that great but it does display my pictures very well in a file outside of Adobe. It has a very recent processor and one can run a few things at once without slow down. It is really quick on the net with Xfinity also. I don't know about the SSD although it does not have one. I use two external backup drives and put some pictures on the cloud. I have had a couple of virus invasions since I bought it and Dell service was outstanding in clearing them out without claiming it was not their fault. I do have a two year service policy with them. It has been worth it. </p>

<p>Andrew, I'm in much the same situation as you though my PC (Dell 4700 & Windows XP) is still performing OK. I can't answer your question though I would be interested in your experience with \ reaction to your new acquisition. I don't currently run Lightroom but would be open to getting it if the XPS 8700 turns out to be my next computer. Come back & give us an update when you get the new one. I'll activate 'Notify me of Responses' so as not to miss your update. Good luck! LM.</p>

<p>I got a Dell XPS 8500 about a year ago. It came with Win 8 64 bit and 8 gb ram. I have upgraded it to Win8.1, 16 gb ram , and recently CS5.1. The ram upgrade was the only thing that really improved the performance.<br>

Opens my 650+kb 48 bit scans without any delays other than Windows indexing outside of PS and no delays within PS.<br>

I use Advanced System Care to keep the clutter cleared out and have had no problems. <br>

I started getting a second home page opening to a series of Russian sites, reported it to ASC and Firefox and it stopped after a few days. Suspected the second page to be from a purchaser of the Target hacking information. A cookie from a user at some ad ware site, don't remember the site name, was being piggybacked onto the homepage start up. ASC took it seriously, Firefox never responded to the feedback, and McAfee blew me off saying it wasn't their concern until an infection was present. McAfee is the bundled security suite used by Dell. It is the only weak point I have encountered.<br>

Advanced System Care is available as freeware and paid versions from http://www.iobit.com/ . It or a similar program is worth having and using regularly.</p>

<p>I've got an XPS 8700 on order. I have no doubt will do the job and then some. I also plan on using mine for editing 4K video with Adobe Premier Pro. </p>

<p>I just got the XPS 8700 Special Edition about 3 weeks ago. Has I7, 24gb memory, 256gb SSD and 2 TB hard drive. Opens LR5 in about 5 seconds. Loads 200mb film scans immediately and adjusts with no delays. I'm running Won 8.1. I was told memory and SSD are the key items for fast processing. Hence what I bought. Plus I wanted to have spare room for growth into video which uses a lot of it. So, you never know what will be release in the future, so I like spare room for growth. I also bought it on American Express because they will add a year to the one year warranty at no additional cost if something breaks in the second year. Good luck.</p>

Thanks for the replies so far. I was thinking I would try and get it with windows 7 given the overheads and issues of windows 8. I don't

really use the operating system as such, just use it to run applications. The argument for dell is that the hardware does seem to last. I

don't know enough about PC components to know if something bespoke, such as from pc specialist would last. The downside of dell is

the software included that you don't want and deleting it starts to degrade the registry before you start. The other thing about Dell is that extra memory and ad dons seem a lot more expensive.

<p>I recently purchased a Dell XPS 8700 with Windows 7 Professional installed instead of Windows 8 and I've been happy with its performance. It boots quickly and is very quiet. There is room inside for an additional two hard drives and it isn't too difficult of a job installing them. I don't recall how many (if any) open expansion slots are available inside expansion purposes. The big selling point for me was the abundance of USB3 ports available on the XPS 8700. I would like to have a more robust power supply in the box but currently I am not taxing the standard issue one. My computer has only 12 Gigs of internal memory and the standard Dell provided video card but since I am not into games I haven't felt limited by either of those items.</p>

<p>After cleaning out all the 'crapware' I ran a registry optimizer/cleaner and have not noticed any slowdown. I currently use it for photography using Lightroom 5 and Photoshop (latest non-cloud version) as well as some simple video editing with Premiere Elements 12 and it handles those chores quite well. </p>

<p>A final note is that you are not required to get extra memory and add-ons from the good folks at Dell. You can buy compatible memory and add-ons from any number of non-Dell sources and either install them yourself of find some local Mom & Pop computer repair person to do the deed for you. I imagine the good folks from Geek Squad at Best Buy would be happy to take your money for performing such a service if you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself. I have added an additional HDD to my XPS 8700 and plan to add an internal BluRay/DVD recorder as well as an additional internal HDD soon. The case is easy to open and it is fairly easy to get at things once inside. The provided How-To instructions are very helpful too.</p>

 

<p>Check with Dell before you purchase. The XPS 8700 comes in standard and Special Edition configurations. You may be limited to Windows 8.1 with some. Verify if you can add SSD and extra memory later to certain configurations as there may be limitations on expansion. </p>

 

<p>I'm running the XPS 8700 as I write this. Now that I have learned Windows 8 pretty well, I like it very much.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

<p>I was looking at that on Amazon and other locations but it did not specify which graphics card comes with it. Does anyone know? I also saw this maybe be a better option.<br>

http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaCentre-K450e-Desktop-57327389/dp/B00K91D6YW</p>

 

<p>Check Dell's web page<br>

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8700/pd.aspx?&ST=+dell%208500%20xps&dgc=ST&cid=282646&lid=5372022&acd=123098073120600</p>

<p>Dear all, <br>

Apologies for taking 9 months to sort this out. I just spent a week trying to get sense out of Dell for the spec of the XPS 8700 PC I wanted without any success at all. I considered getting a basic level spec and adding components myself, but re-installing Windows on SSD without the disks just seemed too much hassle.<br>

Therefore I got the following spec from Build Your Box the custom builders for £1,038. Too early to tell if it works, let alone lasts 7 years like my last PC, but they were infinitely easier people to deal with and had good reviews online. Thanks for all the assistance.</p>

 

Processor:

4th generation Intel Core i5 4690K @ 3.5 GHz x 4 cores

 

Cooler:

Be quiet! BK009 Pure Rock CPU Cooler

 

Motherboard:

Asus Z97-K Motherboard

 

RAM:

16GB Corsair Vengeance (2x8GB) DDR3 1600MHz

 

Graphics card:

Intel integrated HD 4000 graphics

 

Hard drive:

240GB Kingston SSD now v300 sata III solid state drive

 

Optical drive:

Samsung 24x Dual Layer DVD Rewriter

 

PSU:

430W Corsair CX430 80+ Bronze PSU

 

Case:

Antec VSK-4000E ATX Case

 

Fans:

2 x 120mm Be Quiet! Silents Wings 2 case fan pack

 

OS:

Genuine Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit (inc. disc)

 

Second hard drive:

2TB Seagate sata III 7200RPM hard drive

 

Third hard drive:

2TB Seagate sata III 7200RPM hard drive

 

Card Reader:

Icy Box internal multi card reader with USB 3.0

 

Sound Card:

Asus Xonar DG 5.1 Soundcard