Attn: XPS 8700 Owners - Upgrade!!

The fan that came with mine has ran quiet, and temps has stayed in normal range (28-35C) even after hours of use. Sure I can hear it, yet no louder than the stock cooler that was with the i7-4770. 

On the other hand, am not a gamer, but do run virtual machines, which uses lots of power, on one have 8GB RAM & 4 CPU cores assigned. 

Should I see a temp increase, will consider a 3rd party cooler, but not liquid, at least as long as the system is under warranty. There's likely some type of low profile aftermarket cooler that's popular among the hundreds of thousands of XPS 8700 owners, this model was at well over 2 years, one of Dell's larger model runs. Other OEM's changes models every 3-6 months, I suppose to keep owners confused as to upgrades. 

That's an area where I'm glad that Dell changed, using standard Intel components & for the most part, doing away with all of the proprietary connectors, which was costly & a lot of trouble to upgrade simple components. For example, to add an Intel CPU cooler to my retired Dimension 2400, had to order some type of plate to hold the cooler retainers, and like this upgrade, had to snip the pins off of the cooler, provide power via a Molex connector to some 3rd party adapter to make the fan run, and just left the OEM exhaust fan plugged in & let the cooler run full speed, and it was needed. 

The CPU upgrade at the time was considered the ultimate Dimension 2400 upgrade, a 3.06GHz P4 with H/T (Northwood), if it wasn't limited to a 0.5MB L2 cache, could had been a decent CPU. I do know this, in the winter, could drop the thermostat, close the door to the PC room & within an hour was cozy. 

Yes, I'm glad that Dell listened to their customers, plus look at the money saved in not having all of these oddball connectors that would change over models. That's one reason why after 13 years, am still a Dell customer & recommend the brand. 

BTW, as far as the i7-4790K goes, it has a higher Passmark score (11214) than the i7-6700K (11,015), and the i7-4700 that shipped with the PC wasn't shabby at 9832. Yet the fact that the i7-6700K was beaten by the i7-4790K was a shocker, and may be showing that Moore's Law is catching up. The CPU dies are forever shrinking, how much more can these shrink & expected to be powerhouse models? The same is taking place with GPU's, and some enthusiasts aren't convinced that newer models, though consumes less power, are more powerful enough to pony up $300 or more. The GTX 960 was one example of enthusiasts backing off of upgrading, when introduced starting around $209 for 2GB GDDR5 models ($239 for 4GB models), many smelled that something wasn't right, compared to some 700 series models. 

It may just turn out, that those of us who took the i7-4790 upgrade, made the best decision in their lives as far as CPU's goes, and I still expect the last of the models to pass the $400 mark. 

Cat

Hi guys, I just wanted to know if the i7-4790k is STILL the best choice for CPU upgrade. I currently have the i7-4770 that shipped with the system. I'm good on the PSU and GPU upgrades but wanted more CPU umpfh. In fact, I would like the best possible CPU that works with the Dell XPS 8700 motherboard and BIOS (currently at A11).

I know the PassMark score is lower for the i7-6700k so it does not seem worth it but when looking at other CPU's on the chart there seem to some others with higher scores than the i7-4790k. I'm curious to know why many have not chosen to go higher, and after researching the forums here I am unable to determine any specific reasons. Perhaps because the XPS 8900 is out now and nobody is upgrading 8700's anymore? I wonder if there are any other limitations. Or is it a price vs performance thing and the i7-4790k strikes the best balance currently? The posts I went through are quite old. Nothing recent from 2016.

Would appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Thanks in advance

You cant mix and match and put any ole I7 in.

Different sockets, chipsets , power etc.

Haswell core i7 4790k  PCG 2013D

Sockets Supported FCLGA1150  85W

http://ark.intel.com/products/80807/Intel-Core-i7-4790K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_40-GHz

Skylake  core i7 6700k PCG 2015D

Sockets Supported FCLGA1151 (130W)
http://ark.intel.com/products/88195/Intel-Core-i7-6700K-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-4_20-GHz

Perhaps because the XPS 8900 is out now and nobody is upgrading 8700's anymore?

I don't think very many were upgrading CPUs on 8700s before skylake came out..

I know of two, maybe three on the forums that have put in a 4790K

Price of a 4790K is about $325 + / - and then sell the 4770 for about 150 +/- after selling costs on eBay so the net cost is a$150 to $200

The benchmarks are minor and when real-world applications come along for most users the speed between a 4770 and a stock 4790 and a stock 4790K is barely noticeable.

Also, dropping in a 4790K into an 8700 won't unleash the potential of the 4790K because the 8700 motherboard is not designed for overclocking. Also the memory speeds are hurt because XMP voltages cannot be set.

My guess is if those that were serious about wanting more CPU speed just built a system around a faster CPU. For some software applications, an overclocked 4790K will be noticeably faster, but for many things it will be no different, not not discernibly different than a 4770.

I own a non dell 4790K overclocked to 4.7Ghz with memory overclocked to 2400Mhz.  I only notice the speed difference when encoding, rendering video or compressing very large datasets. the GPU I have is the same as in my kid's xps 8700 ( a GTX 970 ) and there is zero difference gaming that I can notice.

The xps 8700s are running DDR3 1600 CL 11 where my overclocked 4790K is DDR3 2400 CL10. 

All have SATA 3 SSDs and 16GB or memory.

I'll be honest, I built my 4790K/Z97 system expecting more performance difference than I ended up with, so pushing aside all the synthetic benchmarks, what is it your desktop is not doing fast enough? and before upgrading the CPU, I'd think about getting more/better/faster graphics and more/better/faster storage.

Good luck,.

Dan-H, I now have one of those EVGA 'G2' 650W series in one PC, have ordered another, arriving tomorrow (08/12/16) for a custom build that the i7-4790K (& until I can grab a GeForce 1070). the GTX 960 in my XPS 8700, those PSU are not only great, they're whisper quiet. Will reinstall the carefully packaged i7-4770 back into the XPS 8700 as soon as the new system is complete. It's kind of tempting to save the i7-4770 & stick a Pentium Anniversary Edition (unlocked) or i3 & clock to the most stable frequency possible, back off one notch for safety, advertise & unload on a sucker looking for a 'not too old'  PC possible, on an 'as is' basis. I'll transfer the last year remaining of SquareTrade warranty to sweeten the deal.;-)

That'll give me two i7's to later 'delid' & fix what Intel messed up for a grand saving of no more than $10 per CPU, using liquid metal, have an enthusiast friend who specializes in this. He'll do it for me in exchange for work that I can do, though normally charges $150 for the service (including removal & reinstall in desktop PC's). Notebooks costs more, and most balks at the price, often $300 or more, but time is money, he can't keep a business up for free. 

May purchase the EVGA 'G2' 550W for the XPS 8700 (if I decide to keep it), it'll soon become my 2nd best PC overall, am building this time to eliminate bottlenecks that OEM's imposes. Example, there's only one 4 pin ATX power connector to the MB, isn't a twin set of these best for CPU power, like most all aftermarket MB's has? I mean, the GPU has it's own twin 6 pin connectors, though am using only one with the GTX 960, seems like the CPU & RAM would perform better with more power fed to it.

Even during using the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility, stress testing would not get the CPU to jump above 4.2GHz, and I tried all OC choices in the UEFI, seems that 'OC1' gives the better scores (940) over Default & 'OC2' (926 & 932), am tied with several other members at 940.

My custom build will also feature the 512GB Samsung 950 Pro (M.2), attached to an adapter for the extra speed that the MB's M.2 connector can't provide. Sure 10Gbps is better than 6Gbps or SATA-3, but when on a PCIe x4 port, that speed goes up much further, in essence 4x faster in reads & 3 to 3.5x faster write speeds, with the 512GB model. Don't know what I'll do with the SATA Express, but will figure something out.;-)

The build will be sweet when complete, especially later in the year when I can grab a GeForce 1070, the 1080 isn't worth the extra cash for me, and at $249-279, the 1060 is 'budget', even with 5GB GDDR5 VRAM, also limited by a 192 bit bus. I knew when nVidia stated a 1060 was coming that would be 'affordable', there would be a catch somewhere. They're not going to cut the sales of 1080/1070 models that enthusiasts craves by providing 'high powered' GPU's that are priced at the same as some of the GTX 960 versions at introduction early last year. Something's going to be watered down, I'll spend the $200 more & get performance that slaps current GTX 970's around like mad, and hangs with many GTX 980 versions. 

Thanks for the heads up tip in regards to the EVGA PSU, it was your post that made the decision for me. Inferior PSU's can take a lot more than the PSU with it, and has been the cause of fires. There are other & safer ways to save at best, $15-30. Plus with the $15 rebate on both purchases, this really brings the cost down, with one caveat. The 2nd EVGA 'G2' 650W was $22 more at newegg than just 3-4 months back when the first was purchased. Still, I prefer peace of mind, plus the 7 year warranty that EVGA offers. 

Since it's been your posts that's inspired me to 'build my own' (after all, all of us enthusiasts needs to do this once in a lifetime), I posted mainly to thank you for the advice given, even if it were to others.;-)

All the Best,

Cat

Since it's been your posts that's inspired me to 'build my own' (after all, all of us enthusiasts needs to do this once in a lifetime), I posted mainly to thank you for the advice given, even if it were to others.;-)

My apologies for this inspiration as it will soon eat away at your life savings :)

I suggest following some of the enthusiasts forums like overclock DOT net and read what the big kids are doing. You may end up selling all of your haswell / devils canyon parts and jump on the Socket 2011-3 bandwagon.

good luck:

ps: here is my Z97 / 4790K / GTX 970 build https://pcpartpicker.com/user/danhoo/builds/#view=XvgLrH

I wanted to add that I tried adding the i7-4790K  to an XPS 8700 and it failed until I came to this thread and was suspicious that the BIOS may not have been upgraded. I found the BIOS was at A01 (original) and upgraded to A11. As some have surmised here, the BIOS upgraded DOES allow upgrading to the higher end CPUs and they were right. The new CPU worked perfectly after the BIOS upgrade. Thanks for your assistance.

I am curious what you upgraded from and if you notice a significant difference?

Also, if you find the stock cooler noisy and not cooling well enough, checkout this thread for a great option that works with the proprietary Dell Mounting system.

en.community.dell.com/.../19993539

I wanted to add that I tried adding the i7-4790K  to an XPS 8700 and it failed until I came to this thread and was suspicious that the BIOS may not have been upgraded. I found the BIOS was at A01 (original) and upgraded to A11. As some have surmised here, the BIOS upgraded DOES allow upgrading to the higher end CPUs and they were right. The new CPU worked perfectly after the BIOS upgrade. Thanks for your assistance.

I've just put a 4790k into my 8700 and on first boot a message appeared about CPU Overclocking Failure and let me pick either F1 (Continue) or F2 (Setup)

Any ideas why this is?

I have the latest BIOS installed

I noticed in the Advance BIOS menu there is a OC option, this is set to Normal (but OC1 and OC2 are available)

Could this be temperature related?

I could not get the stock 4790k cooler to fit (click down one) so went back to the Dell OEM one.

When I get into windows the CPU is between 40c > 70c.

Also got random reboots when benchmarking.

For now I have turned of TurboBoost and it seems OK.

Any info to fix this would be great... I have a 120mm liquid cooler on order but would like to make sure its not any other issue apart from temps.

mehtaman, it could be the stock Dell cooler, which is 100% aluminum, although heavier then typical ones. Still, you need a copper core one, all you need are the larger optical drive screws to secure it with, the type used on the older SFF desktops that made these slide into place.

Then carefully cut the push pin tabs off of the Intel cooler, don't worry, if warranty service is required, you can always purchase a brand new one on eBay for $10 shipped, some with the new paste intact. While it's a short term solution to a long term issue, it'll run a little cooler.

It's also why I removed the 4790K out of my XPS 8700 & performed a self build with it, and replaced the i7-4770 back in there. Was considering using the 4790K's little brother that I have recently purchased (i5-4690K), but since Dell doesn't have adequate power for high performance CPU's (just one 4 pin power port, versus two on most any aftermarket MB), didn't see the need for an unlocked CPU that I couldn't 'feed the juice' to in other to support overclocking.

While this is a short summary of the issue, consider that most all premium aftermarket MB's has a far better power phase (some 12 power phase models for common quad core CPU's), others a bit less, though most all are better just because there's two 12V power pins for CPU power.

Have been an XPS 8700 owner since late 2013, so know the PC fairly much inside out.;-)

Should you continue to have issues with the 4790K, you may want to consider a Z97 build, to take advantage of the NVMe SSD's. Oddly, Dell didn't include a 2nd PCIe 3.0 x16 lane for the purpose of this, and what looks like a x4 one is fake, prominent members of this Forums have stated this. Yes a x4 card will fit, although not electrically. I'm not sure this was fixed in the XPS 8980 or not, although their NVMe SSD support is half backed, there's an M.2 slot, just not a Ultra M.2 (instead 2nd or previous gen technology).

Seems like every time Dell is on the verge of greatness, they'll blow it over a $2 component. Instead of penny pinching in this manner, would be best to leave the card reader out, many of us has a USB model that works just as good, if not, these are only $5 on promo. A Ultra M.2 slot isn't something that can be upgraded to, even by one with excellent soldering skills. The previous gen is baked into the MB, just as the fake x4 PCIe slot is on the XPS 8700, nothing we can do to eliminate these bottlenecks, other than build our on w/out these.

Good Luck & please let us know how the liquid cooling goes. If needed, you can purchase a EVGA 'G3' series 550 to 650W PSU to meet your power needs, just have to push in two tabs on the back wall to get the old out & the new in. If desired, just look on Newegg for the EVGA 500W G3 series, there'll be several others, most features a compact fit & are fully modular, as well as Gold rated with a 7 year warranty. Just be careful about which CPU power plug to use, there'll be two. May need a magnifying glass to see, one plug coming from the PSU is a bit rounded, the other more squared. If not mistaken, it's the more rounded one needed, should plug in w/out force.

Yet even a PSU upgrade won't correct Dell not placing twin 4 pin CPU power ports on the MB, another $2 saved. Since these were purchased in bulk, the cost was far lower & could had offered more premium features, to include the Z97 chipset needed for NVMe SSD's on Intel MB's.

All the Best,

Cat

I just read this entire thread from beginning to end. I don't remember why or how I ended up here. I went down the proverbial rabbit hole. I really enjoyed the read though. It was like I was reading about my younger self. I used to have to have the latest, greatest CPU, GPU, etc etc too. Reading that Cat was trying to get a 7.9 index was particularly amusing as I used to do the same thing lol just so I could post it in forums. Then one day I had an epiphany  of sorts. (That and a new family to take care of). I asked myself when was the last time I tried to do something and my computer couldn't do it due to being restricted by CPU, GPU, PSU, etc.? I honestly couldn't remember. My PC had pretty much always done everything and anything that I required from it before I started emptying my bank account into upgrades. Most all the upgrades were never used to their full potential as I didn't have any way to actually do that. I didn't have any use for them at all really other than  "bragging rights". Now days I have found much more satisfying uses for my disposable cash. I dump it all into my two race cars. The difference being that I can tell myself or anyone else exactly what limitation(s) were removed by each and every upgrade. I use the entire machine to it's full potential regularly. It's a heck of a lot more fun, my whole family is involved, and it's way more satisfying to post a W or low ET (the fastest time of the race) than it ever was to post a shot of the WEI.

Bonzai37, am happy that you obviously enjoyed the reading of my posts, some of which I was still in the learning process.

Since I've built that first PC, have performed three others for myself & several more for others (at half the price of a custom 'PC Shop' build), in addition to a compete teardown of the Dell Dimension 2400 & cleaning up (both of which were the hard part), and despite all of the former owners looking for upgrade paths, Dell Rockstars, and everyone else who stated 'major case mods' were needed, pulled it off within two hours after removal of old components.;-)

speccy.piriform.com/.../r1dv3SUwNbzhbh4EwHWKiAY

My out of pocket cost was $60 & that was only for a EVGA 550W B3 (Bronze Modular), reusing components from previous builds & a smaller SSD that hasn't seen action for over a year. When was the last owner of a Dimension 2400 posted with a CPU running at 24C (about average for me), used the custom CPU cooler for the FX-8350 that was designed & built by Cooler Master for this one, and used the Hyper 212 EVO, plus a Noctua NF-12 120mm PWM case fan due to the noisy one that came with that model. Unfortunately, while the small cooler in the Dimension 2400 case is very efficient, it's fan is kind of noisy & not easily replaceable. WEI of 7.4 with Windows 7 Pro before rejoining the Windows Insider Program after a break, who'd had thought that a 15 year PC would be running what'll be W10 'Redstone' upcoming, much less running a WEI of 7.4 prior?;-)

If a 'major case mod' consists of removing that joke of an AIO CPU & case fan & the 4 CPU screws that can be reused as standoffs should I need an extra, then I have no earthly idea of what a true case mod involves, other than cutting where needed. None of which had to be done, the ASRock 970M Pro3 MB & backplate dropped in like the case was designed for both, and even the power plug to the panel was a perfect fit, the front USB ports works fine. Just need to hook up the front audio, will figure that out soon.

So I can take most any chassis, with the right components laying around, can build it better than new. Oh, and have learned with CPU/heatsink cleaning to use coffee filters & 91% alcohol, rather than tissue paper, paper towels, anything that leaves lint behind.

About my XPS 8700, have reassembled with the OEM supplied i7-4770, and will be purchasing a Vortex cooler in the next few weeks, looks to be the best CPU cooler upgrade, using the same type of optical drive screws mentioned in earlier posts. In fact, doesn't look to be a whole lot different in design than the one that ships with the FX-8350, or the Black editions with the Wraith cooler, discovered it on this Forum.

Have added a new EVGA (Gold rated) Modular 'G3' 550W PSU to the XPS 8700, as well as a 6GB GDDR5 EVGA GTX 1060 SSC with ACX + 3.0 cooling, the PC runs much better than out of the box, and best of all, no more freezing. Although may have identified that cause, the install of the Intel Driver Upgrade Utility, if not completely removed, portions will regenerate (the 'SUR' folder has to go) & cause issues. I did use that software & was never removed from the old install, basically a useless software that's more trouble than worth having.

While the i7-4790K could had been a fantastic upgrade for the XPS 8700, Dell killed it before launch by having only a single 4 pin power port, and even with the A11 UEFI update, there's still no way to control frequency, nor is there an option to install DDR3-2400 RAM modules in XMP Mode. I mean nothing, what good is an unlocked CPU w/.out power & tuning options, other than that provided by the Intel XTU app? The PC is a joke for overclocking, although great as a media center & daily driver PC (especially with an upgraded GPU), maybe more of it's intended target. Here it is today..Unfortunately, the GTX 1060's have leaped in price, last time I looked, the price for one was as much as I paid for both.

speccy.piriform.com/.../KrNXc5IZ6HmJvrrLVSZbGzi

Wanna see a couple of my 'Devil's Canyon builds, here they are, both designed by myself & both stuffed with DDR3-2400MHz RAM. The 'little brother' i5 can be jacked up to the same base frequency as the 4790K with a few clicks.

speccy.piriform.com/.../WKsjd6AqbjssYbyAAjrQiPc

speccy.piriform.com/.../tbdS4YKHBvWROeKETAMBRKk

And finally my other self built AMD PC, the one I mentioned having a AMD-8350.

speccy.piriform.com/.../GUHywCAGd5NEjBvRp8KWMoW

For now, am going to hold off on new builds, just keep up what I have, and watch Intel closely. Should AMD keep advancing, will go with them on my next build, as they don't substitute thermal paste for fluxless solder, and like the 'FX' line, didn't make the same mistake as with the 'FM' line & include a onboard GPU, that's the place for the MB OEM's, it was that way for years until the beginning of this decade. All that both Intel & AMD did was make the MB industry more profitable, while at the same time, watering down performance of their CPU's. Ryzen has made a huge leap forward, it'll be a matter of time before some AM4 MB's offers onboard graphics.

As for Intel, glad that I went no further than Haswell, as we now know, the famed (or infamous) i7-7700K can heat spike with as little as movement of the mouse. Making matter worse, Intel cannot explain why, there's a 30+ page Topic on their site, with an Intel rep posting a automated response that 'we're doing our best to investigate the cause'. The 'cause' is shrinking the die too far & trying at the same time to maintain a onboard GPU, maybe that's why the mouse triggers temps, the onboard graphics kicking in. AMD doesn't have that issue, because they've decided (on tower PC's) to go w/out graphics, one who pays $300 & upwards for a CPU likely has some type of GPU laying around to use until the desired one can be obtained.

Again, my thanks to Dan-H, w/out his inspiration, none of this would had happened, while I wanted to do this, it was the following of his posts (not just in this Topic) that gave me the confidence that I could also do these things, and no my bank account hasn't been drained, even on my fixed income, sit aside so much cash for PC building & upgrades, am awaiting a GDDR6 GPU to hit the market next, will upgrade my best PC (the one with the GTX 1070) & shuffle cards around. This allows a constant upgrade cycle for most with a single purchase, as I re-purpose the cards after cleaning & repasting if needed, rather than selling (or outright giving away) for half the price.;-)

Cat