R11 delivery pushed back

In the Dell build, the 2 things I would question most, as an outside observer, is your choice of video card and your intended memory upgrade. First, the 2080 Super doesn't really need liquid cooling, even in our tiny case (IMO), and the fact that it's a 2080, when the 3080 is only $100 more and is much more stout for gaming. Second, RAM upgrades for the R series desktops can be hit or miss, depending on brand and speed. You may find that the ram you have simply won't work in this PC. There is a memory guide for them somewhere but I can't seem to find it at the moment.

That aside, it's your money and only you know what your day-to-day needs are. 

The memory I chose has been used by others with success, plus the company itself listed it as compatible with the R11. It's an obstacle I can work around, should the unanticipated happen.

I selected the 2080 liquid cooled because I intend to OC it and I became enamored with the idea of liquid cooling, the quieter operation and potential for more stable cooler processor temps.

In hind sight, I'd pick the 3080 but the deal I got when I ordered it is gone so a re-order would cost about $500 more. My DIY didn't include the 3080 for well known reasons---availability.

Which would you rather have, the R11 or the DIY config I selected? and would you actually do a DIY rig?

If I can build DIY at same price or cheaper I'd go DIY.

Cyber Monday I got a r10 for a lot cheaper than I could of built.

I ordered the same system as you with the exception of the gpu. I ordered the RTX 3080.  I placed my order December 5th for an estimated delivery of December 23rd, but it was delivered to me on December 20th.

If I had it to do over again I would have built my own rig.  Your proposed build will give you a large case to keep everything cool (the R11 is a small case with everything crammed very tightly together) and your motherboard will give you lots of possibilities for upgrades.  The gpu in the R11 takes up all but one pci slot and I was going to put a USB 3 pcie card into that slot but it would butt up close to the exhaust fans of the RTX 3080.  

Dell would have been better off putting a blower gpu into these rigs.  Exhausting the gpu heat inside the small case creates a lot of heat.  There is so much heat coming out of the top case fan that I don't need to put the heat on in my basement, and it is 0 degrees here.  I also can't get the Killer E3000 network card to deliver more than half the 1gbps speed of my router.  My previous rig sat in the same spot connected by the same ethernet cable to the same router, so I can't figure out the 480 - 520 mbps speeds I'm getting.

I kept the price the same because that was what I expected to pay DELL. I'm not certain if my DIY system is a comparable system, component wise, mainly because of the motherboard. I don't have any info on the mobo DELL uses. The CPU in my DIY configuration has a negligible gain with cores/threads but a slightly lower clock speed. The case, PSU, memory and storage are null for this equation.

@ZenicaPA  I'd almost always choose the DIY over a prebuilt...but the R10 or R11 is a pretty good deal overall, which is why I chose the R10 Ryzen back in April. It's my first prebuilt since 1999 or so. If you can afford to wait, I'd say stick with the R11. You can always upgrade components later as the need arises. 

I like your solution. That's a nice setup. I am expecting a call from DELL to see what can be done, to either change it or reorder it without losing the discounts but switching the GPU to the 3080. I do like the DIY approach, in that I built it, I installed everything and I know it inside and out. I'll have a better idea after I talk with DELL.

What cooler is that? and what GPU?

I ended up ordering a new R11, the same config and the original rig but with the 3080 instead of the liquid cooled 2080. I'd have gone the route of the DIY if I could find the 3080 anywhere on planet Earth but aside from the sphincter douche bags on eBay marking them up 200%, every retailer and grey market seller is sold out.

I could have stuck with my DIY and the 2080 I found but I decided against it. In the mean time, I'll play around with the 2080 liquid cooled R11 when it comes to tide me over till rig #2 comes.

So, next up: looking to liquid cool the 3080 with an external cooler.

So a block made for an MSI GPU won't fit the DELL GPU?

Given the reports I've read about the non Nvidia cards having fewer capacitors (or some other smd) I wanted to have the card run as cool as possible. Is there a dedicated area of the forum to the 3080 and liquid cooling it?

@ZenicaPA 

Probably not official ones, as Dell has said there will be liquid cooled options for the 3080/90, but no actual data has been dug up or released with actual specs.

But the private community is very ingenious, I'm sure there are threads somewhere with DIY options.