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A few questions about XPS 8950 options
What is the difference between Standard CPU Cooling and Advanced CPU cooling?
I want to clarify the number of storage drives I can have. The manual says, "Your XPS 8950 supports up to two 3.5-inch hard drives + up to two M.2 2230/2280 solid-state drives". So if I get the XPS 8950 with dual drives (SSD + 3.5-inch HDD), I can add another 3.5-inch HDD and another SSD, right? (Total = 4 drives) I'm asking because I want to make sure the connections aren't disabled on the motherboard.
The specs say that the Optical Drive is a DVD Drive (Reads and Writes to DVD/CD). Can I upgrade to a Blu-Ray drive?
Does it come with discs? (Windows, drivers and any software I may have added to the PC?)
For those who already purchased the XPS:
Is it really tight inside the case? How hard is it to work in there when you add or change some hardware? I hate the smaller cases because everything is so compacted.
And finally...
Why doesn't Dell sell full-size towers anymore? I was going to buy an Alienware Aurora just because I like a tower with room, but it only comes with F-series processors, which I don't want.
I'd appreciate any info you can give me. Thanks.
lancelee2022
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March 20th, 2023 19:00
Let me try to address some questions I know:
(1) Standard cooling is fan, Advanced cooling is liquid
(2) Indeed 2 x M.2 slot available so you can add an extra NVME beside the one shipped from DELL
(3) There are four SATA ports available, one for DVD and three for HDD. Two HDD bays are available but you need to have blue plastic cabby to hold the 3.5 inch HDD. One cabby is provided in the box. The other you have to buy somewhere else. Each bay has one power cable with 2 inserts so in theory power is good. There is a standard DELL 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch blue cabby convert which can hold two 2.5 inch SATA SSD in one single 3.5 inch HDD bay so you can maximize the SATA HDD/SSD to three or even four (I saw one post replacing the DVD drive with a fourth SSD by using the DVD SATA port). Also you will need to buy the retangular SATA cable, especially for the 3.5 inch HDD, otheriwse the case can not be closed. For 2.5 inch SSD, as they are "deep" in the cabby, you will need "straight" SATA cable to connect SSD. In my case, I did not buy any HDD from DELL, but the first blue cabby, one retangular SATA cable and 2 power cables are pre-installed.
(4) Blu-Ray, no idea, guess if you can find the same form factor, should be easy to replace.
(5) No disc. All pre-installed. You can download driver etc. from DELL website.
(6) Big or small inside, depends on what do you want to do.... for SDD/HDD/DDR5, easy, but if you want to change / add PCI-e card, the bulky 3070i video card give you much less space on the slots.
Hope it helps.
jombay
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March 21st, 2023 06:00
It helps a lot! Thank you so much. I didn't realize that advanced cooling is liquid. Good to know. The info about the drives and cables was very useful. I appreciate you taking the time to explain all of that.
Mike18062
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March 21st, 2023 07:00
Good morning . . my understanding was that the XPS-8950 actually had two (2) levels of fan cooling (one standard, one 'advanced') and a premium level liquid cooling option. Over months and months of evaluating all the options vs. price, I typically saw these options . . ordered mine with the "advanced fan" cooling option with the 750W PSU. I'm no expert, but perhaps there is one 'standard' fan cooling for the lower rated PSU vs. the 750W PSU??? Just curious as I was glad to see the original questions listed.
lancelee2022
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March 21st, 2023 08:00
You are probably right. I bought my XPS8950 the first day DELL released it so it is the only version (premium one) available then. Mine is i9-12900K + 3060Ti + 750W + Liquid Cooling. Later DELL added some main stream models with more options. Now I see Dell website offers three options: Standard air cooling, Advanced air cooling ( +0$), Performance Liquid Cooling (+50$). Guess everyone will go for free Advanced air cooling at no extra change unless they want liquid. Three power ratings: 460W (Grey case), 750W and 1000W (Silver case) are probably more for CPU + Video card customization.
So basically I have no idea what's the difference of standard air colling and advanced air cooling. Since it is free upgrade, go for it. LOL.
smokeygraypoupon
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March 21st, 2023 08:00
I recommend the premium air cooler vs the standard air cooler. The premium air cooler is a twin tower with a fan in the middle. The standard air cooler is the "pancake" style and inadequate for the Intel i7 and i9 cpus.
Hope this helps.