XPS 8940 regular vs SE

Yes, sorry :). I meant I am in Canada not the US. 

Looks like the SE is only available in white, and includes the 500W PSU in the price.

You can't order the SE with only a 512GB NVME SSD. It only comes paired with a HDD while the "regular" version offers the 512 GB SSD alone, without a HDD. So this may be part of the price difference.

And keep in mind that either system is coming with 1x 16 GB of RAM. That means memory will only run in single-channel mode which is somewhat slower and less efficient than dual-channel mode. Dual channel mode requires a matched pair of RAM modules. If  you're certain you won't want to upgrade to the max of 128 GB of RAM, you might want to consider 2x 8 GB RAM (same price) to support dual channel mode.

If you're in USA, go here to get a $50-off coupon code for purchase of an XPS desktop, which you'd apply at checkout. (Read/follow the instructions.)

And in USA, if you join Dell Rewards (free), you'll get reward points for 3% of your purchase price (6% if you finance through Dell) toward the purchase price of accessories from Dell after your order is delivered. (Read/follow the instructions.)

You have to join Dell Rewards before you place the order and you should probably wait until you get the confirmation email before ordering. Keep in mind rewards points expire 90 days after being posted to your account. So be sure to spend them toward the price of some extra goody before the time limit runs out.

Happy shopping!

@Flying Elbow  - Now I'm confused.... You said" "I am in US, not Canada".

Did you mean you're in Canada, not USA??

All bets are off for prices and configs in Canada. I only compared USA configs which may be different than what's offered up north. And I don't know if discount coupons or Dell Rewards are available in Canada. You'll have to search their Canadian site.

Dell PCs can be very fussy about RAM and the 2 modules will have to  be very similar -if not identical- to run in dual channel mode. A lot of peeps around here buy RAM from crucial.com because they guarantee compatibility if they recommend RAM for a specific PC model. And some have claimed that at least certain Crucial modules will support dual channel mode when paired with a Dell OEM RAM module of the same size installed in the same bank (matching color retention clips). YRMV.

I am in US, not Canada, and the build I mentioned is about $1,700 CAD. I plan to buy another 16Gb RAM stick of Amazon, the upgrade to 32Gb is $200CAD on Dell site. I guess any 16Gb module with the same specifications as the Dell one should be fine, right? Is there a particular reason why I should buy the RAM upgrade from Dell?

Thanks!

I've used both versions, and currently have the non-SE (black) version. The white case of the SE looks too much like a kitchen appliance in my opinion, but I had to return it for other reasons having to do with the configuration I chose.

Beware -- I have just discovered, to my great annoyance, that the 8940 case, when equipped with a double-height video card (My GTX 1660 Ti, for example) renders the PCIeX4 slot unusable, as the bottom of the video card and its cooling fan will be completely blocked by the upper (smooth) surface of any card inserted in that slot. Tech Support confirmed this to me after they looked at my photo of the 1660Ti on my motherboard, showing the proximity of the installed card to the unoccupied 4X slot.

Too bad they didn't realize this before the 8940 was rushed into production to replace the ill-fated 8930 design, with its own airflow problems.

Thanks for the info. How do you find the noise/air flow in 8940? I also plan to get the GTX 1660 Ti.

Cheers!

10th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-10700 processor(8-Core, 16M Cache, 2.9GHz to 4.8GHz)

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6

32GB, 2x16GB, DDR4, 2933MHz

2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive

500W Black Bezel Chassis inc ODD

Hi,

The airflow in the 8940, with its front-to-back path, is fine (I won't use a machine with a top-mounted fan, for various reasons), and the noise level is non-existent (and no screaming fan as with the 8930).

If you want to stay with a double-height video card, and are confident that you won't need an expansion card in the future, then this is probably a fine choice for your configuration.

@neil49  - I think you mean double-width, not "double-height".

RoHe, thanks for the correction; I had the term "double height" on my brain after staring for too long at the open side of my 8940 while it was standing vertically, trying to make sense of the design goof.

@neil49   - I guess they presumed peeps would just use the x1 slot when a double-width video card is installed.

All in the name of squeezing everything down into smaller and smaller dimensions...