The XPS 8700 that is cheaper by $100 is just plain better. All things equal with the more expensive except two things…
The cheaper one has a easily better GPU (but does take more power). The cheaper one has built in 802.11 AC wireless where the more expensive one only goes to 802.11n.
I highly recommend the Dell XPS8700. I own a refurbed Dell XPS9100 and have had it for 3 yrs without a problem. I would recommend, however, if you want an extended warranty on it go to Dell to get one. My computer before this one was also a refurbed Dell and the one time I had an issue they had a replacement part to me in two days.
Received my HP ENVY 700-229c. So far so good… running well. Pretty quick, no major issues except one.
It said in the description “16GB mSATA SSD for fast Windows booting… blah blah”. There’s a few problems. 1) Windows is NOT installed on that disk!!! 2) The drive is not recognized by explorer (device manager sees it, but you can not assign a drive letter). Basically i have a 16gb SSD that’s sitting inside only sucking electricity and otherwise wasting space.
So I didn’t figure that out until I had about 80% of the applications I wanted installed… and 100% of the ones I didn’t want uninstalled (HP Bloatware).
Not sure if anyone from Woot is still reading this after the sale… I’ll email customer service when I get a chance.