Dell’s XPS lineup is perhaps better known these days for their swanky laptops like the XPS 13 and XPS 15, but they still do offer pre-built desktops. The latest desktop under their premium series is the XPS 8950, and features a host of upgrades including an option for an all-in-one liquid CPU cooler.
Right off the bat, you might notice that it’s actually a fairly large chassis, with Dell using a larger 27L case for its new XPS desktop refresh compared to the older 19L cases on its predecessor. This increase in size isn’t without reason though, as the idea here is to provide more cooling and airflow, with up to three 120mm fans capable of 5,000RPM and an AIO liquid CPU cooler on higher spec models.
The case design itself maintains the ‘business on the top, airflow on the bottom’ look, but with additional vents on the side and feet to raise the chassis. Dell claims that their new desktop is 21% cooler under load than it’s previous machine with its regular CPU cooler, while the AIO liquid cooler is a further 18% cooler than the regular heat sink. They also say that desktop the improved thermal capabilities, it’s still 50% quieter than previous generation XPS desktops.
There’s good reason behind the increased cooling capacity. The Dell XPS 8950 desktop will come with the new 12th generation Intel Core CPUs, with the highest spec packing the Intel Core i9-12900K. That gets paired with a Z690 motherboard, up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 4TB of storage split between an NVMe SSD and a hard drive. Graphics-wise, you can have either up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 or if you prefer something from Team Red, either the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT or RX 6900 XT.
In terms of I/O, you’re getting three USB-A 3.2 ports, a USB-C 3.2 port, a headset jack an a SD card slot on the front. The rear meanwhile has a further two USB-A 2.0 ports, two USB-A 3.2 ports, a USB-C 3.2 port, a gigabit ethernet port and a set of audio ports for the 7.1 channel audio. Your graphics output ports meanwhile will differ based on your specific configuration. Furthermore, it comes with Intel Killer WiFi 6 connectivity as well as Bluetooth 5.2.
Other features include either a 460W bronze-rated power supply or a 750W platinum-rated power supply depending on your configuration, an optional DVD-RW drive, and integrated 7.1 channel audio. The chassis itself comes in either Night Sky or Platinum Silver, with the former using rubber feet while the latter has aluminum feet.
So far though, we only know that Dell will be launching their new Dell XPS desktop in Malaysia some time in early December. As for its price, the base model will start at RM5,999 but there’s no word yet on how much the higher tier configurations will be.
For more information on the new Dell XPS 8950 desktop, you can check out its announcement post on Dell’s blog.
