Xps 8300

[compuservant]

I just bought a Dell... I know, I had to bite my cheek to get through the process but the deal was too good. It was about $1300 for core i7 2600 [not 2600k ], 16 GB af RAM, 1.5 GB in Raid 0 (750X2), W7 Pro
My Questions. Is there room for a 2nd graphics card? I can fing little MB info. I opted for the Radeon 6870 and would love to throw in a 2nd one in Crossfire.
2. Logicbuy has a great deal on my favorite SSD, the Kingston 120 GB HyperX. With the Raid 0 setup of the 2 HDs, could I install the SSD as a boot drive and then reinstall Windows 7 Pro (before loading any programs or data, of course.) Forgive my ignorance but is this what is meant by a "clean reinstall" to get rid of bloatware like the MacAfee and other junk that comes with the system?
3. The sytem didn't come with a monitor. I have a decent 24" Samsung already but saw a Asus 27" for around $200 (also on logicbuy.com). Any thoughts?

Thanks for any suggestions and taking the time to respond

 

[Kef]

I'm slightly older spec but likely to be similar - 8100xps a year or so ago, unfortunately I didn't do my homework too well:

Motherboard - doesn't have a second PCIe x8 slot suitable for crossfire or SLI - may have changed for the XPS you can check this via the product downloads section on the dell site - use your service tag to get the correct documents. Or if you know what you are looking at the slots are visible when you open the side panel. On mine the Graphics card was held in place by a metal bar the space below is simply a PCI slot

Power supply - stock in mine was only 350 watts, this is easy to check as it is clearly displayed on the side of the PSU when you open the side cover - I've just upgraded mine to 650 watt modular to combat repeated crashing after long sessions.
I also thought that the cooler might be weak, but upgrading that to an Arctic 7 has only reduced temps by 5 deg C.

Don't know much about the SSD drives, but mine is 2Tb raid 0 and has never really bothered me, boots in <30 seconds, and usually one of the first to arrive in any game lobby, loading screens in skyrim are common, but I can live with that.

6870 sounds nice though, I've an older 5770 and this runs 1080 with reasonable sampling and ailiasing, AMD have a chart showing recommended power supplies for each card.

can't comment on the monitor, but bigger is usually better provided the refresh rates and contrast ratio are good ($200 sounds too good to be true, I'd expect double that for a good 27)

 

[Kef]

definitely no to cross fire, doesn't even have a full size second slot


http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/xps8300/en/sm/sysboard.htm#wp1184253