Dell Pro QCT1250 2025, Core i9-13900K, 32GB, 2TB SSD, Black

The i9-13900K is a beast, landing in the 94th percentile for CPU performance, and the 2TB NVMe SSD is top-tier too. But the integrated graphics score a 14.2/100 for gaming and the 180W PSU probably throttles that fancy CPU. Great for CPU-bound work, bad for everything else.

Let's talk about that CPU. The i9-13900K has 24 cores and boosts up to 5.8GHz, which puts it in the 94th percentile across all desktops we track. That's genuinely one of the best chips on the market right now. Compile times, virtualization, heavy multitasking, this thing chews through it. The 32GB of DDR5 helps too, sitting in the 78th percentile, which is well above average for a prebuilt.

But the GPU is where this machine falls flat. Intel UHD Graphics is integrated, meaning it shares system memory and has no dedicated VRAM. It ranks in the 38th percentile, which is mediocre at best. You can run a 4K monitor for productivity work, but don't expect to do any real gaming or GPU-accelerated rendering. The 180W PSU is also suspiciously small for a 13900K system. Under sustained all-core loads, that chip can draw over 250W by itself. Dell is almost certainly throttling it, which means your 94th percentile CPU might perform more like a 70th percentile chip in practice.

Stack this against the HP OMEN GT22-3080 or the Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 and the Dell looks confused. Those machines come with dedicated GPUs and PSUs that can actually feed their components. The Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra is in a different league for creative work, though it costs significantly more. The ASUS ROG GM700 and CLX SET TGMSETRTU5204BM both target gamers, and the Dell's 14.2 gaming score means it's not even in the same conversation. For pure CPU performance, the QCT1250 holds its own against all of them. But desktops are systems, not individual parts, and the rest of this build drags it down.

At $1,680 USD from the single US listing we track, this is a tough sell. You're paying a premium for the i9-13900K and 2TB NVMe SSD, but the integrated graphics and tiny PSU undercut the value proposition. For that money, you could find a system with a dedicated GPU and a proper power supply. The CPU and storage are legitimately great, but you're not getting the full benefit of that chip if the PSU is choking it. If your workload is purely CPU-bound and you never touch graphics, the price per core is decent. For everyone else, it's a mismatch.

The Dell Pro QCT1250 is a weird one. You've got a 24-core Intel Core i9-13900K, a chip that sits in the 94th percentile for CPUs in our database, paired with integrated Intel UHD Graphics that lands in the 38th percentile. That's like putting a race car engine in a golf cart. For developers and home office users, the CPU and storage combo is genuinely exciting. For anyone who wants to game, this thing is a non-starter, scoring 14.2 out of 100 in our gaming category.

The 32GB of DDR5 RAM and 2TB NVMe SSD are solid picks, landing in the 78th and 92nd percentiles respectively. At 5.44kg, it's a chunky desktop, but it's not meant to be portable. The 180W PSU is the real head-scratcher here. A 13900K can pull way more than that under load, which means Dell is likely power-limiting this chip hard. You're paying for a flagship CPU that may never hit its full potential.

Skip this if you do any gaming, video editing, 3D rendering, or anything GPU-accelerated. The integrated graphics score a 14.2/100 for gaming and the 180W PSU means the i9-13900K likely never reaches its full boost clocks under sustained load. You'd be paying $1,680 USD for a CPU that's being held back. If you need a balanced system, look at the HP OMEN GT22-3080 or Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 instead. Even for pure CPU work, the power supply situation makes us nervous about long-term reliability, which is only in the 70th percentile.

The Dell Pro QCT1250 is a niche machine. If you're a developer or home office user who needs raw CPU power, lots of RAM, and fast storage, and you never plan to touch a game or GPU-accelerated task, it's worth a look. The 94th percentile CPU and 92nd percentile storage are genuinely impressive. But the 180W PSU and integrated graphics make this feel like a half-finished build. At $1,680 USD, you're paying flagship money for a system that can't fully use its flagship chip. We'd recommend waiting for a version with a real PSU or looking at competitors with dedicated GPUs.