XPS 8910 vs XPS 8900

Never heard of 745 ti and I don't think it exists.  The default card in the BestBuy systems is an X8 GT720

The 8900's with SSD and 960 are over priced imho.  I purchased my 8900 based on the cheapest price and then added a better power supply, video card, and M2 SSD being a SAMSUNG 950.

8MXMJ Nvidia GeForce GTX750Ti P123N, 2GB, DVI-I/DVI-D/mHDMI
TC2P0 Nvidia GeForce GTX745 M302N, 4GB, DVI-I/DP/HDMI
9YJWT Nvidia GeForce GT720 M211N, 1GB, VGA/DVI-D/HDMI

9KYFK AMD Radeon R9 270 RD14D-P1-70, 2GB, DVI-I/DVI-D/DP/HDMI

I see that I have a typo in my original question.  One of my considerations of the XP 8910 purchase is the GTX 750Ti graphics car (not 745Ti).  You can see the specs here on Dell US website.

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Before we get too far into the weeds on which specific graphics card I plan to use I'd like to point out the main thrust of my question is the *possible* Dell XPS 8910 case's heat & noise issues.  The Best Buy Dell XPS 8900 would be my fall-back option if there are indeed issues with the newer case design.

Hence the title of this subject "XPS 8910 vs. 8900?"

8900 vs 8910 differences are updated motherboard  (some  Improvements ) and the new case.

en.community.dell.com/.../19995152

As far as graphics card updates, a GTX 1060 would be the way to go (IMO)

The 8900's with SSD and 960 are over priced imho.  I purchased my 8900 based on the cheapest price and then added a better power supply, video card, and M2 SSD being a SAMSUNG 950.

I would agree with Speedstep's approach to buying either machine when you finally decide.  Get the cheapest machine that you can find with the i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and a low end graphics card, and upgrade from there.  

So how would one go about creating more airflow inside the XPS 8910 case?  Was the design of the case supposed to be similar to the Alienware cases?  Looks vastly different from the recent XPS cases.

I see an area in front of the chassis where you can mount a fan but are there openings in front of the case I'm not seeing that would actually air intake?

Is there a fan at the rear of the case that helps pull the air away from the CPU like the previous cases or is that a new CPU fan/shroud/heatsink assembly that passively vents to the rear or top of the case?

And when the PSU is hinged closed into the case, is that going to obstruct the airflow in a big way so anyone that puts a high end video card into the case creating more heat is just going to make matter worse?

Any thoughts?  (You can click on images below for closeups of the case...)

The (on paper) benefits of the 8910 MoBo are support for kabylake processors, USB 3.1 and a true NVMe PCIe x4 M.2 slot.

From what I have read about the 8910 case, I would not buy one unless I planned to re-case the system or do some case-mods to add fans to increase air flow.

Go with the XPS 8900.........perhaps down the road there might be an easy way to do mods to deal with the issues with the XPS 8910 case, but it's a work in progress for sure.     There are some easy to do mods with the XPS 8700, just follow DanH's lead in adding a front case fan and you should be good.  Even as a stock machine with no upgrades you should be gtg.

So how would one go about creating more airflow inside the XPS 8910 case?

1) water cool the CPU with a 120mm AIO cooler ( which I dislike) and I'm not sure will fit

2) go with a blower style graphics card cooler which are louder

3) add a front intake fan, and cut the chassis so the air finds a way into the case.

4) consider a case mod to add a floor fan as an intake. raise the base up about 3/4+ inch

5) If more intakes are added, remove unused PCI card blanks and drill more holes in the back panel to allow hot air a way out.

or

buy a new case and deal with the pin-out of of the front panel items.

Guess it’s doable DanH……would take some work though. 

 BTW I have had both styles of GPU’s, the rear blower type and the custom onboard fan designs.  I actually find that the rear blower types with a single fan is quieter than the 3 fan custom designs spinning at high rpms….depends on the card.

I looked at little closer at the XPS 8910 case design and the case is intended to vent from the side, not the front.  Interesting that they also moved the exhaust fan up top.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing but the PSU being in the middle of the case and on top of the CPU cooler doesn't help with airflow.

From the Dell XPS 8910 description:

“Keep your cool: An optimized airflow path uses side vents to draw cool air across graphics cards and CPU, while a separate airflow path cools the PSU. Rigorous, proprietary testing ensures that all system components are kept cool, even under the most intensive loads.”

 So there are open vents at the rear of the side panel for this “optimized airflow path”.   Passive airflow is not "optimized" however.

1) Looks like air from the side vent flows into the openings on the  PSU and then is vented out the rear of the PSU.  Must be a fan in this PSU to pull air in through the opening and side vents. 

2) There must be side vents below the level of the PSU which are cooling the graphics card and also flows to the CPU which sits under the PSU when its hinged panel is locked in.

At the location on the swing out panel below the PSU indicated by the four red arrows, I think I would add a Corsair AF120mm (1100 rpm) or AF 140mm (1150 rpm) intake fan, one of the Corsair AF Quiet Series which runs at a fixed rpm from a 12v molex.  This should pull air into the case from those side vents much better than the passive design that Dell intended.  

I think using the brackets that I used on the intake fan prior to the XPS 8500 MSI Sea Hawk installation would work there.  I would fasten the bracket at the holes in the chassis at the red arrow on the left.  if there isn't room for two brackets in that location, a single bracket would work.

That would create better airflow with an intake fan pulling air into the case and the top 120mm fan as exhaust.    If the CPU temps were still too high, I would look into the AIO 120mm liquid cooled CPU cooler using the 120mm fan as exhaust, there isn’t much of an option otherwise.  Perhaps even use the 120mm CPU cooler fan as the intake in that side location. With that swinging panel that might not work though. Would the fan/radiator fit in those locations?  Like you mentioned, I don’t know how that new CPU cooler design fits onto the motherboard and if the 4 mounting holes necessary are present like on the other XPS cases.  Then there is the issue of clearance under the PSU which sits on top of it.  You would then have to figure out how the fan motherboard headers are setup and which fans you would connect to them....would take some figuring.

At the very least I would install an intake fan and go from there.

Feel free to add any other suggestions......

Feel free to add any other suggestions......

The more I look at options to improve airflow in an 8910 case,  the more I think I would simply move to a new case, or just not buy it. 

It does seem a bit ridiculous to buy a new brand new computer and then feel that you need to modify the case so much.  It would be like buying a new new car and then replace the body.

Thank you for everyone's comments and suggestions.  I will make my decision in a few weeks on the purchase.

I have only read about heat and/or noise issues from the XPS 8910 from within these Dell forums.  Just one or two incidents from what I can tell.  I haven't read anything else outside of the Dell forums (product reviews, other hardware forums etc).  Anyone else heard of problems with the XPS 8910 case or experienced the issues themselves?

Great suggestion.  Thanks for the helpful link to the fan.

starting to crash after more than 6 years of service (unchanged from original configuration)

Maybe it's just time for a clean install of Windows? Be sure to back up personal files on external media first...