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937199
XPS 8700 motherboard and mSATA SSD
Are there any differences in the motherboards between the regular XPS 8700 and the Special Edition 8700? Or all the differences in the configurations of the add-on hardware (memory, hard disk, graphics card, SSD, etc.)?
If I purchase a non-special edition 8700, and I want to add a mSATA SSD, are there any particular brands or specifications I need to consider for the SSD to be compatible?
I appreciate any help you can provide.
David
Lahash
1 Message
2
September 6th, 2013 09:00
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This can not be true because I talked to a dell service rep last night Jessica M. and she said that the RAM was upgradeable to 32G on the XPS 8700
catilley1092
172 Posts
0
December 12th, 2014 07:00
That's right, no mSATA SSD included with the non-SE unit.
However I added a Crucial M550 mSATA & installed the OEM version of Windows 8 that shipped with the PC on it (was sent the OEM Windows 8 DVD by overnight FedEX), it's the fastest SSD on the system, with writes at 500MB/sec & reads close to 600MB/sec (ATTO Benchmark).
If you get one, make sure Not to get a M500, it's much slower, but a M550. Newegg has these, I got mine on promo for $159, at current time they're $189, more costly per GB than regular SSD's.
The Crucial M550 (both mSATA & regular SSD) is direct competition to the Samsung 840 EVO, and it does it w/out with RAPID mode, which is buggy on the XPS 8700.
Other SSD's on the system is a 128GB Samsung 840 Pro & 180GB Intel 330 (2012 model), and a 500 WD RE4 SATA 2 for data.
I removed the stock 1TB HDD and placed it in storage as is in case future warranty repairs are needed. Once that runs out, will use as a backup drive, it's a cheap Seagate HDD commonly sold on promo at Newegg for $59, with a 3 egg . Not a good sign of long term longevity.
Anyway, that mSATA port is far more capable than being more than a small model for a system cache. It can have the fastest drive in your PC.
Good Luck :-)
Cat
catilley1092
172 Posts
1
December 13th, 2014 09:00
The Crucial mSATA SSD now shows in my Speccy specs, though it's only referred to as the model, and not directly says mSATA. Here's the link to it, model number matches my Speccy specs, and I'm the 2nd reviewer of it to date (on 09/30/2014).
www.newegg.com/.../Product.aspx
Only have a 100GB partition on it, with 138.48GB totally unpartitioned, haven't decided yet what to do with the rest, though I'll leave the last 38.48GB free for the controller, it greatly improves lifespan to leave at least 10% unpartitioned, a little more, the better. There's another 180GB SSD on the system with over 60GB free, and my main one, the 840 Pro, is where it's going to stay.
As to the content about the NVIDIA card that's really off topic, I was advised by SpeedStep what to install in the MSI R7770, though if it were today, there are a couple of nice NVIDIA cards in the $120-150 range that are great bang for the buck with the DP port I wanted, but there's no way that the 460W PSU that shipped with these units can power such cards as that long Topic is referring to, and if I were going to the trouble of adding a PSU, I'd have saved my cash & built a PC with the components to support it. Some of these folks are unfairly bashing Dell, and I'm afraid that's what that Topic has turned into, as more jumps on the wagon, some probably not even owning the model.
Which were my initial plans, until I seen the model that I have on promo at Costco for $699, the 12GB RAM & the i7-4770 would been more than half of that cost for me to build. I seen it & grabbed it while there, they had the same one with Windows 7 for $100 more with only 8GB RAM.
The stock AMD HD 7570 is now running fine in my Dell Optiplex 740, glad to have found a use for it.
Anyway, I've supported the documentation to prove that a Crucial M550 mSATA SSD is installed by my Speccy specs, and mine is the non-SE PC. Personally, I just don't see double the performance in paying $1400 or more for those models (which would pay for 2 of mine), that has the same CPU & 12GB RAM isn't a pushover.
Adding a 16GB RAM kit is my next priority, and when PCIe SSD's fall in price, adding one to the x4 slot on the board to have a 800MB/sec SSD (or faster). Yet I'll still have less than $1400 in the PC.
Dell computers has always done the job for me, and spare parts are easy to find when they become older for reasonable cost. Am glad that Dell has went away from all of the specialized connectors & using standardized components throughout.
Cat
DELL-Andrew F
249 Posts
0
July 9th, 2013 01:00
Hi dal_4,
Good day and welcome to the community!
Thanks for reaching out to us. The XPS 8700 has an advance graphics card which is expandable to NVIDIA® Geforce® GTX 660 1.5G GDDR5. And HDD is expandable up to 2000GB Sata Drives and Up to 16GB Dual channel DDR3 RAM and for the XPS 8700 SE has a discrete grpahics card with 32 GB Dual Channel DDR3 memory and HHD of 3000GB storage. Most likely, the MOBO of the XPS 8700SE is more advanced since it can run up to 32GB of RAM. And for the SSD, here are the most recommended:
Hope this helps. If there's anything else that you need assistance of, just let me know and I'm happy to assist further.
Thanks and Regards,
DELL-Andrew F
249 Posts
1
July 10th, 2013 02:00
Hi dal_4,
Just a follow up. If further help is needed, just let m e know and I'm glad to help.
Thanks and Regards,
dal_4
8 Posts
0
July 10th, 2013 09:00
Thank you for the reply and information. It was helpful, however I would really like to get confirmation if there really is a difference in the motherboards. Is the non-Special Edition really limited to 16GB? I realize Dell does not configure it that way for non-SE versions. Also, are the 2TB and 3TB really limits on the hard drives? I plan to install two 4TB drives in a RAID 1 configuration.
If there are no differences in the MB, my plan was to purchase a non-SE (8 or 12 GB) and do the upgrade to the SSD for the OS and add the 4TB drives myself as Dell does not offer this configuration and it would be very expensive even if they offered it. I would then upgrade to 32GB in the future.
Thanks again for your help.
David
2004_4600
12 Posts
0
July 11th, 2013 16:00
I'm considering buying an XPS 8700 with the i7-4770 processor and wonder if you know the manufacturer and model number of these components on it:
Motherboard
Hard Drive (1T)
Memory (8G)
If anyone has purchased the same machine and taken a look inside I'd appreciate any info.
Thanks
Mageborn23
3 Posts
0
July 12th, 2013 09:00
Motherboard is small and i don't think it even has the capability for sli
Mageborn23
3 Posts
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July 12th, 2013 10:00
I'm actually pretty dissapointed in my purchase, xps used to be cool. My xps720 is a beast...this is like a bunny, i don't even think my graphics card can fit in the case
dal_4
8 Posts
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July 13th, 2013 09:00
Andrew or other Dell Liaison,
I was really hoping to get an answer to my question, as I plan to purchase one of the XPS 8700 units based on this information:
I would really like to get confirmation if there really is a difference in the motherboards. Is the non-Special Edition really limited to 16GB? I realize Dell does not configure it that way for non-SE versions. Also, are the 2TB and 3TB really limits on the hard drives? I plan to install two 4TB drives in a RAID 1 configuration.
Thanks,
David
DELL-Andrew F
249 Posts
0
July 17th, 2013 12:00
Hi David,
Apologies for the delayed response. As I have previously mentioned, The MOBO is different and HDD limits are correct 4TB cannot be installed on both. And the 16GB limit for non SE is also correct. For anything else, just let me know.
Thanks and Regards,
J03
19 Posts
1
July 19th, 2013 15:00
Thanks for this info.
Where might we find the technical specification and/or part numbers of the XPS 8700 and XPS 8700 Special Edition, especially concerning the mobos?
Reverend Truth
6 Posts
0
July 24th, 2013 12:00
Dell Motherboard: 0KWVT8
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003
Hynix RAM: HMT451U5AFR8C-PB
dal_4
8 Posts
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September 6th, 2013 10:00
I thought I would update with my experience. I ended up purchasing the XPS8700 through Costco website with the 24GB RAM and the 256 GB SSD for the operating system. I purchased two to the Hitachi 4 TB hard drives and was able to successfully install them in a RAID 1 (mirroring) configuration (as a D: drive). It came with a 2TB drive as well which I moved to E: It came with Windows 8, but I "upgraded" to Window 7 professional. I needed to install all the Windows 7 drivers found on the Dell website. It all worked fine.
The computer is *VERY* fast. It boots in about 20 seconds and I have not had any significant issues with the hardware. I am using a dual monitor setup as the video card came with two digital video ports.
So I don't really know if there is a difference between the XPS8700 SE and the non-SE version of the MB as presumably I purchased the SE version.
Reverend Truth
6 Posts
0
September 6th, 2013 13:00
That's a nice configuration they're selling. I probably would have chosen that if it were available when I purchased mine.
I'm wondering if it has the same motherboard as mine or uses the SE motherboard (if there is a difference).
I have dual 2TB drives in a RAID 1 array right now but would like to know if I can install larger drives in the future.
I might also double the 16 GB of RAM I've got installed now. Those two empty slots look tempting.
Could you post what motherboard yours has? CPU-Z will tell you or you can open a command prompt (cmd) and type
wmic baseboard get product,Manufacturer,version
Thanks.