Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition Review
Last Updated on by Daniel Lawrence
Desktop PCs such as the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition are what made Dell such a dominant player in the computer industry. Due to Dell’s established reputation for building robust, stable, and powerful systems coupled with an increasingly keen eye for elegant design, this PC is definitely one of the best Dell has ever produced.
Unlike an eSports tournament, this belongs at an office or a university library, rather than in an eSports arena. Furthermore, you can get pretty powerful hardware with the higher-end configurations – such as an RTX 3070 and a Core i9-11900K – so you can game with the best of them.
Both the front and rear of this workstation have ports that make it an excellent workstation, offering plenty of slots for USB peripherals, a full-sized SD card slot, an easy USB Type-C port on the front, as well as an optional DVD drive – upgradable to Blu-ray – for using a CD to install software or burn data/video.
This chassis is a real showstopper. From the perspective of an office system, it is simply beautiful. Unlike other systems, this one doesn’t feature RGB lighting, but it is still much more elegantly designed than most XPS desktops, which come in a black monolithic design.
It is a standard Dell keyboard and mouse combo, and while it matches the looks of the system itself, it is perfectly adequate for the job at hand, but not more. The best keyboard and the best mouse are available to suit your tastes, so there’s nothing wrong with swapping them.
Getting the most out of the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition will cost you a little bit of cash since the entry-level configuration is over $2,000 more expensive than the top-end configuration, but it means that there is an XPS 8940 Special Edition model for most budgets, and none of them is a bargain when it comes to hardware.
This powerful computer, without turning your desk space into a circus, makes a perfect purchase for replacing the family computer, upgrading your home office, or outfitting your business or organization’s workstations, or for those who simply want a powerful computer without the fear of breaking the bank.
SPEC SHEET
Here is the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition configuration sent to TechRadar for review:
CPU: Intel Core i7-10700K
Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3070 8GB
RAM: 32GB DDR4 RAM
Storage: 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD + 1TB SATA 7200RPM HDD
Ports (Back): Audio In/Out (3 jacks), 1 x DisplayPort 1.2 (UMA only), 1 x HDMI 1.4 (UMS only), 4 x USB Type-A 3.1, 2 x USB Type-A 2.0, RJ-45 Ethernet; (Front): 1 x SD Card slot, 1 x 3.5mm combo headset jack, 3 x USB Type-A 3.1, 1 x USB Type-C 3.1
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1
Weight: 13.89 pounds (6.3 kilos)
Size (W x D x H): 6.65 x 12.13 x 14.45 inches (169 x 308 x 393 millimeters)
Design
One of the most appealing aspects of the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition is its design. Due to its compact design, it can easily be accommodated in any workspace set up.
It features several front-facing ports – including a Type-C port and SD card slot – so you can use it for whatever work you need and it offers a large number of back-facing ports so you can do whatever you want.
Even though some business software and records still use DVDs, it’s not something you see in computers too much these days. The importance of long-term solutions is evident for enterprise users, but they are also crucial for home users with a ton of existing data or software.
In addition to the chassis’s function, it is beautiful. A change in pace from most of Dell’s black chassis is evident in the Mineral White chassis of the XPS 8940 Special Edition. We immediately thought of the Dell XPS 13 when we saw the XPS 8940 Special Edition, which is easily one of the best laptops we have reviewed so far this year, largely because of its design, making this model a perfect desktop companion.
Performance
Our benchmark results are no surprise given the hardware in the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition configuration we tested. RTX 3070 graphics cards and Intel Core i7-10700K processors are responsible for this, but it is important to build a stable system to take full advantage of these two pieces of hardware.
We recently reviewed the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i which had the same CPU as the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition that scored nearly as high in Geekbench 5, though the XPS consistently scored 50-60 points higher during our tests. It doesn’t blow the Legion Tower 5i out of the water, but a consistent lead is a consistent lead.
As we expected, the RTX 3070 scored very well in our 3DMark tests. However, it isn’t a slouch when it comes to content creation/gaming and even trails the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090.
The XPS Tower Special Edition averages 170 frames per second at 1080p on low settings, 87 frames per second on ultra settings, and 74 frames per second with ray tracing enabled on ultra settings.
We benchmarked the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition in Total War: Three Kingdoms at low settings for 278 fps and ultra settings for 97 fps, both at 1080p.
| Pros | Cons |
| DVD or Blu-Ray drive option | Keyboard/Mouse are basic |
| Powerful high-end build | The best configuration is expensive |
| Affordable extry-level build | Not available in the UK/AU |
| Gorgeous design |
CONCLUSION
With a solid build, compact form factor, and gorgeous design, the Dell XPS 8940 Special Edition desktop PC offers a highly customizable system with a wide range of price points. Dell’s desktop PCs are at their best here.
