# Upgrade suggestions XPS 8300



## arochon (Apr 3, 2016)

Hi all,
I am kind of a novice to this, but I want to be assured that I am not making any naive mistakes.  
My current system is in need of upgrading - it is a stock Dell XPS 8300 from 2011 with a i5 2400 3.1 GHz processor, 8 GB RAM. I am running a GTX 680 FTW graphics card.

The upgrade I am thinking of is from CyberPower with the following specs:
i7 6700 Skylake processor
GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z170 SLI ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 3 SATA Express, 6 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 motherboard,
16 Gb DDR4 RAM
1000 Watt Power Supply
My idea is to get a cheap(er) graphics card and use my GTX 680 in the new machine.  The old computer would be a music server or somesuch.  Some of the games my son plays (GTA) is choppy on the old system, which I suspect, but am not certain of, a CPU bottleneck.  The price is about $1200.  Do you think this is a reasonable upgrade, or should I tough it out for 2 more years and wait for Cannonlake?
Thanks for your advice.


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## P4-630 (Apr 3, 2016)

you don't need a 1000watts PSU for that!


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## Frick (Apr 3, 2016)

The first thing is to define "choppy". Do you mean low FPS, FPS drops, stuttering or what? I would sooner blame the GPU than the CPU.

But anyway, go for a 550-650W PSU and also get a GPU, if you're upgrading. At least that's what I would do, as the GPU is probably holding you back more than the CPU. Overall. And remember new GPU's are due pretty soon, starting with mid range.


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## little cat (Apr 3, 2016)

i5 2400 is perfect for GTX 680 ! Why such an upgrade ? As long as GTX 680 is used , no need of CPU upgrade . So , either new GPU and CPU or just nothing

I would wait till summer for the new NVidia Pascal and AMD Polaris video cards .


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## arochon (Apr 3, 2016)

little cat said:


> i5 2400 is perfect for GTX 680 ! Why such an upgrade ?


Well, if I don't need an upgrade I can certainly save the money!  thanks


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## little cat (Apr 3, 2016)

arochon said:


> Well, if I don't need an upgrade I can certainly save the money!  thanks



i5 2400 is faster than i3 4160 , which on its own is enogh to handle GTX 960. GTX  680 = GTX 960

http://cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php
http://www.futuremark.com/hardware/gpu


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## peche (Apr 4, 2016)

dude ... fill your current system specs here...
the tell us how much do you have for upgrade the system and what do you want or expect from that PC.,.. like gaming... resolution and sh*t ... 
then we will advise for you.... 

Regards,


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## Static~Charge (Apr 4, 2016)

arochon said:


> The upgrade I am thinking of is from CyberPower with the following specs:
> i7 6700 Skylake processor
> GIGABYTE G1.Sniper Z170 SLI ATX w/ USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 2 PCIe x1, 3 SATA Express, 6 SATA3, 1 Ultra M.2 motherboard,
> 16 Gb DDR4 RAM
> 1000 Watt Power Supply



Installing a third-party motherboard in a Dell PC can be a bit tricky. Fortunately, the XPS 8300 is fairly normal. Having said that, here are some issues to watch out for:

The motherboard that you've chosen won't fit in that chassis. The Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z170 is full ATX, and the XPS 8300 will only take micro ATX boards.

The front-panel connector in the XPS 8300 is one block, as opposed to individual connectors for power switch, drive LED, etc. You will either have to find a motherboard with a matching pinout for Dell's front panel connector, or break out the Dell connector into the correct pairs to match your new motherboard's header.

You won't be able to use your new motherboard's USB 3.0 front panel connector because the XPS 8300's chassis doesn't have any USB 3.0 ports on the front.
Honestly, if you're going to do this much of an upgrade, I recommend leaving the XPS 8300 as-is and building a new PC. You'll end up with nice machine that has all standard parts instead of having to jump through hoops to accommodate Dell's oddities and shortcomings.

Mike


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