Dell XPS 8940

Chic aesthetic ; Nice balance of performance and price ; 4K gaming in compact design ; Easy way to get an RTX 3070 despite GPU shortage

No Ryzen configurations ; Limited expandability

Excellent gaming and creative performance in tested configuration ; Compact ; Quiet operation ; Good front-panel connectivity

Uninspiring case quality ; No AMD version

Dell’s XPS Desktop is an excellent performer and looks chic in its Special Edition guise, though the chassis could use a step up in quality. (We'd also appreciate some Ryzen CPU options, like on its Alienware Aurora kin.)

Small, quiet design ; Plenty of ports ; Good performance ; Physical media drive

No extremely powerful configurations ; Limited storage options

. But the Vengeance i7200 is a gaming system, first and foremost, while the XPS 8940 is definitely more of a hybrid. Which one appeals to you more will depend on how much work you have to do — and how many games you have to play.

Solid performance is provided by this variant ; Highly configurable ; Compact Size ; Good connectivity features ; Better warranty period

Non-standard ; limits major GPU upgrade ; Limited expansions ; Build quality could have been better ; No ; in this variant by default, but one can be added later on ; Cannot be overclocked