1 That's a nice-looking machine, although I wish there were more CPU options. Weird picture you've got there.  Makes you wonder where the CPU cooling is.  Also, it looks like the GPU is integrated onto the motherboard--no upgrading.

2 Also, *sigh* I think I'm going to try again this weekend--probably an Asrock Taichi X370 + 1600X + 16GB of (maybe) G.Skill TridentZ RGB 3200 RAM:  Newegg has a special.

3 Good luck!

And yeah, an option in the middle with a 1600 (and maybe a 570) would be nice.  In Australia they only offer the entry level and top end models, but fortunately I'm after the top end model.

That picture is from the service manual after the heatsinks have been removed.  There are two big flat heatsinks over the CPU and GPU with copper heat pipes to the fan.  Not a configuration I'd want to overclock with, but it should work fine for me.


The GPU is the only thing you can't replace.  The whole system board including the GPU is user-replaceable, but you'd need an exact match from Dell for that.


The other thing I like is they offer a 4-year warranty with in-home service for a reasonable price, so if it goes phut in 13 months I just call them up and use the Mac until they show up to fix it.

4 That does sound pretty nice. As far as OC, I got 300MHz on the 1400 before touching the voltage at all.  The BIOS had an adjustable fan curve, too.  I don't know how much you could get out of that blower fan (I hate those) until it got too noisy for you, but small speed boosts seemed quite effective at dropping temps.  Of course, it may not work as well in a laptop-style case.

5 Round 3:  1600X, I wound up going with the Gigabyte Aorus AX370 Gaming K5, and 16GB of Corsair 3000MHz RGB RAM. I cheated a bit and didn't install Windows--instead, I used the installation that was already there.  I may reinstall, not sure.  I didn't configure anything in the BIOS, so the RAM is running at 2133, and the CPU at stock speeds, but it booted the first time!  (Next up:  see if it survives a reboot.)

6 Update:  It did survive first reboot!  Also flashing to AGESA 1.0.0.6 so I could up the memory to 2933MT/s.  While gaming I saw all 6 cores peg at 3700MHz, and a couple times one went to 4100.

7 Yay!

8 Oh, and RGB mobo/RAM.