JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

I know this has been much discussed but as I narrow my choices down I'm seriously looking at a Dell XPS 8900 Desktop - Intel Core i7-6700 with a 512 GB SSD drive and a 2TB HDD. Is anyone using this or something close and can offer an opinion?

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

It's a good system, the only thing I would recommend is to move up to a 1Tb SSD. You will be surprised how fast you will use up space on a 512Gb. I just rebuilt a system and I have 2-1TB SSD's a Samsung 960 M.2 and a Samsung 850EVO and I've already used about 2/3rds if the space up on my M.2 which is my C drive. Believe me you don't want to overload an SSD drive, all kinds of bad things can happen if you do.

Indi Loc: L. I., NY, Palm Beach Cty when it's cold.

I have that system. Mine came with the 2TB HDD which I immediately replaced with a 2TB SSD.
I keep the original, pristine HD in my closet in case anything goes wrong. That made things a lot faster.
I also maxed out the RAM with a good quality brand, but, to tell the truth, I never felt any difference.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

I am assuming that the SSD would hold the operating system and programs but not images. That's why the 2TB HDD. Are you storing photos on the SSDs?

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

What I didn't mention was that I also have a 1Tb and a 2Tb regular hard drive in the system and a 3Tb hard drive outside the system. That's where I keep my photos in multiple spots. I also upload everything to a cloud system for redundancy. My C drive is my M.2 SSD drive I keep most of the programs that I use regularly, the D Drive is my second SSD and I have a few programs in there as well..

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I just bought the Dell 8910 from Costco and it has pretty much the same specs. Core i7-6700 4GHz, 256GB SSD (M.2), 2TB 7200RPM, 24GB ram, 2GB video card, a bunch of USB3, USB3.1, USB3.1C, USB2, BlueRay and because I got it at Costco it has 2 yr warranty. It's awesome. I just added another 240GB SSD

What I really like about it is that you don't need any tools to open the case up. It's got a swing away power supply that makes it easier to get to the components. The cpu had a bunch of tubes going to it from the fan so I'm assuming that it's liquid cooled. There are only 2 expansion slots available, one with quite a few pins and another very small one. I don't know exactly what they are called these days.

I read a lot of the reviews on the XPS but many don't have the same specs and I think some of them were slow or noisy. Mine is neither slow or noisy. I can only hear a slight whisper of the fans and it's not slow. It boots up in about 30 seconds and shuts down even faster. About the only thing I don't like about it is the cheap keyboard and when it goes to sleep you must push the on/off button to wake it up. Moving the mouse or hitting a key doesn't wake it up.

When installing programs on your computer, think about putting only programs that you really need or want to run fast on the boot drive and put the rest of the non essential programs on the D drive or on another SSD. I've got Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC and Microsoft Office on the boot drive. A few of my other programs installed on the boot drive because they didn't give me a choice. But those that did give me a choice I put on the 2TB hard drive. I've still got 55% of the boot drive left and it's only a 256GB SSD. That's the same size HD I had in my other computer and I never ran out. Just don't put pictures or music on the boot drive. Use other drives for data.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

I have 2 external drives and an internal 1 TB drive currently as well as the 400 GB drive that came with the PC. Do I understand correctly that you do NOT store photos on the SSD drives?

WayneT Loc: Paris, TN

Only what I am currently working on.

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Yes, the RAM is much more important than the SSD/HDD size. How much is there?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Not anymore.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

Thanks for all the detail. It seems like an upgrade from the 8900, which I will look at, for sure.

JimKing Loc: Salisbury, Maryland USA

Some versions have 24 GB and one has 32 GB. I'm shooting for higher, but I started at 16, now I think my minimum has slipped to 24 GB.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

No reason not to though other than expense. Loading a large image file from SSD is noticeably faster than from an HD, but a 2TB SSD is pricey. I keep all my photos on Intel SSDs but I don't shoot that often, cull agressively after each shoot, keep only raw, and back up religiously.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I've been buying similar since the Studio, then 8500, and 8700. Based on an article I read a day or two ago, I would get the Core i5, for $699. I always buy a computer with minimal memory and hard drive. I buy aftermarket memory for a much lower price - usually 16GB, since that seems to be the sweet spot between price and performance. I use the original HDD for data (D drive) and add a Samsung 500GB SSD as the C drive. That holds the OS and programs. My son is running a computer with a 250GB SSD, and the size isn't a problem.

http://gizmodo.com/dont-waste-money-on-intels-top-processor-1791426602
https://smile.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-Inch-Internal-MZ-75E500B-AM/dp/B00OBRE5UE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1486821287&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+internal+ssd+500gb

EDIT: I don't see them offering an SSD.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Like Wayne said, use the SSD for your current import of pictures that you are working on. This is why I added a second SSD. I import my pictures there, work on them, then move them to an external 4TB drive for archiving and retrieval at a later date. I only move them after I've culled through all the pictures and deleted the unwanted, processed the best of the best that I plan to show or print, keyworded and then rated. Then I move them to the external drive. The images open and save lightning fast when on the SSD but not so much when on a USB external drive.