Dell XPS 8700 Feature overview, teardown and upgrade guide 

wait so the CPU cooler fit the stock backplate?!

The 8700 is in face an even more solid machine than it is given credit for, and, since most people view them as "just some crappy old Dell" you can sometimes find a heck of a deal on them as well.

Im kinda surprised people are not encountering more problems than they are as they put newer and newer cards in these things

Dude I want to thank you I followed your instructions and my pc stop shutting down or restarting by itself

If the power supply has 2 6 pins that you can adapt to a single 8 you should be fine

@@dragonsystems5973 Thank you!

@@FrederickDunn for sure :)

I put a 7260 Duel Band A/C mini pcie card with Bluetooth. I works fine. I can now use the 5gh. Network.

I've worked on quite a few of them and I've never seen any unusual thermal issues

I dont think the bottleneck would be as bad as people would like to say, however, the quad core non-K CPU would definitely be limiting, I would look at upgrading at the very least to 8th gen

Thanks!

@@dragonsystems5973 hey I need help my graphics card don't want to boot up and when it does it gets stuck on the dell logo

@@helpme8454 I dont really want to go down the rabbit hole of doing in depth tech support on my videos, however, I would make a guess there is a good chance it is not your video card. You really need to either get another video card in the machine or try using the onboard before even suspecting is the video card

I'm going to guess if you do it right(you have to kinda slide it under the hard drive cage thingy) you could probably fit a reference version of any of those cards, I'm not sure about larger aftermarket versions such as the ASUS STRIX for example

I would be inclined to think simply replacing the power supply would fix it

I have no idea, that will have to be trial and error for you

Im going to guess that the answer is yes.. BUT I have not messed with the newer ones so I dont know for sure... Dell has been keeping the power supply setup off the shelf, I dont know if they finally started going proprietary after 4th gen or not... you would have to google that one, same with with the board, but if I where to make a wild guess I bet it is a standard micro atx mounting board

good to know

I tried upgraded with a rx 580 and I get a black screen with 5 beeps, Put the old Gpu on and it works, the new one is not dead either

Ok so first with the power supply. The Power supply on the 8700 is actually pretty beefy, 500 watt with 2x PCI-E 6 Pin, so using an adapter that goes from 2 6's to an 8 you can run any mid to upper mid range card such as a 1070, a 1080, a 1660Ti ETC, just try to avoid the really power hungry versions and stick with a single 8 pin with the adapter or dual 6 pins. As far as the MSATA, it is kinda a waste, skip it and get a normal 2.5 SATA. MSATA is the same performance as standard sata and it is now a pretty much dead technology so if you buy one it will not be very flexible if you want to use it for something else... yeah, you could get an adapter for it, but save yourself the trouble.

@@dragonsystems5973 I was about to ask you about the MSATA as I've recently changed the HDD to Crucial 2TB SSD and now my PC boots up in 15 secs as opposed to the HDD which took up to 5 mins. Great video by the way 👍

@@BIGBOUTYAH I would ignore the MSATA, all it is is a standard sata port that has been made smaller, it is effectively a dead standard, the only thing it is good for is if you happen to have one on hand already

@@dragonsystems5973Thanks for the advice and prompt reply, I'll probably upgrade the RAM or add another SSD.

Eric Schmidt I too was looking at a 2060 or a 1660ti

I put a GTX 1060 in mine and it was simple plug and play. Nothing else.

aowi7280 does it make a lot of noise? And does it overheat? I am also upgrading to a 1060

PSU

FINITI I dont know if youve already upgraded but I upgraded my 8700 to a nvidia 1060oc edition and its pretty loud but doesnt seem to overheat too much

I have i7 4770 + 1060 6gb and i can game decent at 1080p , the 1660 with that cpu it's kinda waste of money it will bottleneck 100% , I will not advise for that combination. Good luck.

My i5 4440 Does great for basically anything, its mostly the graphics card that makes the system.

32gb ram..max the system ram always for video.

Probably. Typically even the larger aftermarket versions of '60 cards are comparatively small, however, they are typically also low power as well, so I would bet your larger power supply is probably not needed

@@dragonsystems5973 thank you so much for the answer, well the rtx 2060 needs a 550w and dell power supply has only 460w so the evga is a requirement I think.

@@jack84699 Im surprised it needs that much, I was under the impression '60 cards where supposed to be fairly power efficient... that said, Nvidia recommends 500 watt, but they also did specify that the card itself only needs 160, so the actual final needs would be dictated by your specific system

@@dragonsystems5973 you mean that changing the 460w dell power supply isnt necessary? thats could be awesome.

@@jack84699 Maybe, you would need to do some math, I would recommend a power supply capable of providing sufficient power under maximum load conditions, so you would want to research for each of your parts what their "load" power draw is, and add that all up. you probably want 10% overhead as well, but I dont buy into what some people claim where you need like 50% overhead, especially since your system will almost never hit maximum load draw on all parts anyway. if you add it all up and you are even a few percent short I would still deffinitely suggest upgrading

Does it work with other video cards, and does the R9 card also work in other machines?

Wait a sec, I bet it is secure boot. Find that feature in the bios and shut it off and I bet it works

This is not my personal system. Sometimes I pick up bulk loads of like 10 random systems that are all i7s, this was just a random box I did for demo purposes, however, when I went to sell it I would guess I used a 2.5 SSD, or possibly a hard drive, I dont remember for sure, but usually when I get a unit like this I will gut it for parts then redo it as an ultra low end and sell it that way and then use the high end parts to do a custom build with

Got it, thanks again.

@@brucebrowne5022 Definitely

1650 would be fine

Dragon Systems should I consider getting a new psu or will the default work out fine

Well, I always say there is an element of uncertainty until you have actually done the upgrade, but, all things being equal, yes, it should be fine

@@dragonsystems5973 thanks

Actually, the 1060 is a very power efficient card, however, I would try to steer more toward the lower power versions rather than something extreme like a Strix card, for example, just to be on the safe side. It should also be fairly quiet

Dragon Systems 👍

If the power supply is operating correctly I doubt that is your problem, especially since manufacturer suggestions are almost always an overcompensation to begin with, and nvidia '60 cards only continue to become more power efficient. It could however be defective, I have in fact encountered defective XPS 8700 power supplies that behave similar to what you are describing. If you do have to replace it, I believe the 8700 uses a generic off the shelf configuration. Defective memory can cause this type of thing, though I doubt it in this case if it was not a problem before. Probably the first thing you should do is install hardware monitor and verify you are on solid thermal footing with the current build... run it with the side panel for t he case on so you know what kind of temps you are actually encountering under normal usage, even if it is not a thermal problem you still want to make sure you are on solid thermal ground regardless, especially with all that stuff packed into a small somewhat limited cooling performance package

@@dragonsystems5973 Ok I will install that and check it out.. like you said I doubt it's my other hardware because this only started happening after the install of the new GPU. So far I have updated my BIOS, re-seated my GPU, deleted and reinstalled video drivers as well as fiddled with some settings. I installed MSI afterburner right away but didn't overclock anything, and have since uninstalled it in Hope's that was the issue. thanks for the reply, I appreciate the help.

I should also mention that I am using an adapter to go from dual 6 pin to 8 pin power connection to the GPU. have you ever heard of those giving people problems?

@@owneil92 that should work find if you are doing it right(2 6 pins into a single 8 pin)

Brandon Oneil. Also how did you update the bios?

So, luckily for this generation Dell was still using standard parts, so the board is just a standard mounting micro atx board, so any standard case should take it. If you want to go a little nicer you could look around for a Z87 or Z97 board, usually they can be had on ebay for $75-$150, depending on how nice a model you go for

Dragon Systems alright thanks I’ll keep you updated on what I do next to this pc I might build a whole new one but idk yet my uncle got me into PCs the 1060 I got from a broken pc some one was selling at a garage sell for 60 bucks lucky the card still worked

It COULD be a problem with that specific card and that specific machine... I really think the first step would be to go back to the old card, see if you still have the issues, if not, go to the new one again, if the issues are there again, then that is a pretty good sign that it is the card

Dragon Systems yeah I went back to the old card and it still crashed. I even got the new card replaced just in case and it still crashed. Another weird thing is that i can run games like warzone no problem at 90+ FPS but Minecraft always crashes after 5 minutes without fail. I am very lost here and I’ve asked many many people that know much more than me about this but none have been able to solve my issue :/

@@jnyc96 Try replacing your ram. or if you have 4 sticks, try it two at a time, get a memtest program... I would not be surprised if you had a stick or two go bad

@@dragonsystems5973 ran memtest for about 4 hours and 0 errors

@@dragonsystems5973 ive basically tried everything lol and i cant fix it :/

It's actually pretty cool how unproprietary the 8700 is. Honestly I dont think the case is that bad as far as OEM set ups go, it could be a lot worse, and I do think the power supply Dell used is suprising decent quality. 4th gen with a 10 series card I think is the perfect budget gaming build

Oh, I dont know if I would worry about the cooler, it's just my opinion, but the non k 4th gen i5 and i7 chips dont really make that much heat, especially now that you have better airflow in the new case... I won't lie though, it deffinitely would be a big aesthetic improvement and might do well to hide the OEM origin of some of the parts

@@dragonsystems5973 Ah that's good to know. :)

If you are having thermal issues I would recommend removing and cleaning out the heatsink and applying new thermal paste before doing anything drastic. Good thermal paste alone may make the difference you need. The 4770 is not a hot chip from the start, plus these systems cant really be overclocked anyway(yes, I know, someone will tell me how they did it, but they cannot be overclocked using conventional means) add to that the fact that dell does use copper cored heatsinks, you really should be fine. Also, I dont think I have ever seen a good aftermarket heatsink that did not require a backplate, ive seen aftermarkets without them, but they are always fairly similar to intel stock, I suspect the standard intel style clip mechanism is limited on how much weight it can hold to the board

FINITI a 6pin

It should work, I think you might have to slip it under the hard drive cage. You may also need a 2 6 pin to single 8 pin power plug adapter. If you dont already have the card I would advise a smaller model, but again, I am pretty sure it would work if you are just a tiny bit creative

im installed 1660 geforce and it work on xps 8700

carnaverone Did you have to upgrade your BIOS or get the 8 pin adapter? I have bios A08 will this work without having to update bios?

@@ItsRobert1 bios a08 work no bios update work fine

carnaverone I got a GTX 1650 super. I have a GTX 1050ti in there now with the latest drivers. Should I uninstall drivers before putting the 1650 super in?

It depends on what upgrade... yeah, faster ram won't help, but if you are still on 8 going to 16 might, or if you have a GT720 going to a 1050 ti might.. systems like this rarely give in depth control... thats not what people buy them for

I think dell only used one model, it is a 460 watt

@@dragonsystems5973 thanks! and do you think I would need to buy a new gaming case? or will the old do?

@@FINITI as long as the card fits you should be fine

I figured it would, I probably would not have paid extra for the k model though, I know it is clocked slightly faster, but since the XPS cant really take advantage of it, it's kinda a waste of money... I'm kinda surprised they still go for that much though to be honest

@@dragonsystems5973 well they were going for 300$ the average price september 2019 last year so i was very lucky to purchase one for 200$ off of kijiji.ca (ebay owns this canadian classifieds website)

@@dragonsystems5973 I actually read somewhere that there is a website where you can download a modified bios and with that then you can over clock it but then you would need a better heart sink and fan and what ever else so yes i never over clocked this cpu unfortunately!

@@Mark-lr7zp I guess with sources I have I'm one of those people who are totally out of touch with reality on hardware prices

@@dragonsystems5973 What i been told by different youtube PC folks is if the cpu is not manufactured anymore and it is still in high demand is when the price can be higher or the same price as newer cpus ???

Problem??

@@dragonsystems5973 for me , not for you👍💪. Can you send me instructions, pls. Thys computer for my 11 years old son.

@@marekyzr568 what problem are you talking about?

@@dragonsystems5973 after replacement graphics card nvidia gtx 1660 system doesn't start . Computer dell xps 8300 win 10 pro. Like I put back old one graphics card system start no problem.

@@marekyzr568 I mean, if upgrading the bios did not fix it I dont know

Oh gosh, I dont know, I really dont pay a lot of attention to newer parts

Your AMD build is coming... I got my hands on an FX9590 on an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 this morning. it is probably going to get paired with a 4Gig GTX760 I picked up a couple days ago, at least on Apex Legends it was putting out better numbers(pretty much maxed, 1080P, >60FPS) so I think it will be a solid card for the build, when complete it will be a very large very impressive build

@@dragonsystems5973 awesome!

@@jomz6164 And you will be getting a second one... I picked up what was supposed to be an empty case today for $20 and the guy was like hey, my old parts dont work, ill leave them if you want them, turned out there was NOTHING wrong with the parts, it was a complete FX8350 build on a Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with 8gigs ram and a 750 watt power supply in a CM690 Nvidia edition.... all for $20...

@@dragonsystems5973 wow lucky grab!

I generally dont sell those kinda of cards, sorry, I need them for my own builds

I don't anymore. I dealt locally on Facebook market, offerup, and craigslist. I also offered free delivery all over my state when I had sufficient profit in the deal. I switched over to doing full customs for a while, but now I have a fairly well paying regular job, hence the reason you will mostly see me doing videos on newer high end hardware now

Ok, great, good for you.... I have more experience than you having built literally thousands of computers and used literally hundreds of those adapters in that time. Im not saying it is the right solution EVERY SINGLE TIME, Ive gone over this again and again, you have to make sure you have wattage support to do it. That being said, just because you would not do it does not make you right. There is a point at which I have done something successfully enough times where it over rules any advice some rando on RU-vid might have, and this is one of those times. But thank you for policing the platform and making sure we all do our builds to your personal specifications, I promise, we are all much better off now

@@dragonsystems5973Have you always been this sensitive? If so maybe you should stop making videos or turn off comments. It is pc building not life and death. I own a printing business. I bought my first Mac in 1984. I probably have 500 motherboards in my basement. Literally hundreds of processors, thousands of ram sticks. I currently have over a dozen Ryzen systems sitting around my house alone. Including one I built yesterday which I am typing on.

@@christopherwood2290 good for you. I love people who think that some experience with ancient circuit boards in the 80s has ANYTHING to do with modern gaming desktops.... get a life buddy, you dont like how I do my builds, fine, but I have a RU-vid channel filled with evidence of builds that where successful, you do not. Goodbye

9 out of 10 of the people who want to change it dont need to

@@dragonsystems5973 I have an 8700 that I'm putting an SSD, 32gig of ram, and a 1070 in. I came here to find if I should upgrade my PSU or just get an 6-8 pin adapter.

@@ejayerik so, I dont generally tell people to go crazy, but I would add up your existing power draw plus the added draw of the new card and make sure you have at least 50 watts overhead, you dont want to be running it at its max spec constantly. Also, you want to add those numbers for each part under max load conditions, so when you look for power draw you want to find "power draw under load" also, make sure you are looking at power draw not TDP as they are not the same thing. My guess is that the standard GTX1070 founders edition would be fine, I would not suggest a high end model like a strix or similar

@@dragonsystems5973 reality is, I'm not gaming. Won't be stressing the founders edition out. At best, music processing software or AutoCAD. Not many games. Too old and not enough time for that.

@@ejayerik What chip is in your machine?

I assume soo.. honestly though, if you dont already know the answer to that question I would strongly recommend doing a lot more research before you buy anything

Hate to tell you, but you are the first to leave me negative comments about any of my several hardware teardown videos... considering the amount of negative crap that gets said on youtube.... I think the problem is you, not my videos... sorry, I'd be more open to the criticism if these wh were consistently getting negative comments

The guy can't take any form of criticism. We know that for sure lol!

What are you talking about?

you know what a bios is?

@@christopherjames9843 does this have anything to do with the content of the video? Do you have a question about the hardware? If not, move on

@@dragonsystems5973 This post was not aimed at you.

@John Doe wow... John doe... you are really putting yourself out there with a name like that... I'm perfectly fine. I would reiterate, please keep discussions relevant. That's all I'm asking, if you want a bunch of this nonsense on your channel great, I'm not into it. Keep the discussion relevant, it's not asking much

Yeah, why dont you put yourself out there, show everyone your wonderful technique, make some videos of your own for the rest of us to pick apart... then you can run around telling me how it should be. These are videos for people who want the quick nitty gritty. You want perfect tech videos, with everything being the best it could be, go watch someone like LTT. I work on hundreds of systems a year, and I have the videos to prove it, so take your smug self riotousness and go tell someone who cares