The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 is the ideal desktop PC for most users, but offers the most value for the mid-range market

The Dell Tower Plus is a desktop PC that will be whatever you want it to be. That's because there are nine distinct configurations you can opt for – each appealing to a different kind of end user, from day-to-day office bees to power users. As with most Dell products, you can also fully customize your own version of this unit.

Our review unit was configured to represent the most powerful version, with this Dell Tower Plus featuring among the best components out there right now, including an Arrow Lake Intel Core Ultra 9 200 series processor and a 5000 series Nvidia graphics card. Although the simplest configuration starts at £999, our specific combination is available at the sizeable retail price of £3,369.

This model is a direct replacement for the Dell XPS Desktop, which the company last manufactured in 2024. In truth, it's largely the same machine with a lick of paint and a hardware refresh. Although the XPS branding is returning, it's only for a new line of business-oriented laptops – with the Dell Tower Plus still the go-to desktop PC for users looking for a reliable desktop PC with the best specs.

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Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Design

The Dell Tower Plus is pretty much identical to the 2024 Dell XPS Desktop in its dimensions and weight, with a 372.9 x 173 x 426.9 mm chassis equating with an approximate volume of 27.5 litres. The weight also ranges between 8.62kg and 12.94kg, according to Dell, based on your configuration and manufacturing variability.

The one difference between the Dell Tower Plus and the Dell XPS Desktop is a slightly lower maximum weight, with the latter reaching up to 13.34kg. Overall, it's relatively convenient – and much smaller than, say, the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 – which occupies a 32L chassis size and boasts a huge 23kg weight.

Aesthetically, the Tower Plus desktop PC is very simple in nature, which may be favourable to most users. A ventilation grill occupies the lower half of the front of the chassis, with a clean space above and ports lining the right-hand side. You could have easily fit a disc drive in the space here, but few Dell desktop PCs now include one anyway – and you'll likely need a separate plug-in expansion unit.

The only finish this machine is available in is graphite, which is a little bland and uninspiring. This is fairly conventional, however, and won't stand out in a busy office environment – if blending in the ideal scenario. We'd have liked the option of a far fresher silver chassis coating, as was available with the old XPS desktop, but it's far from a dealbreaker.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Connectivity and Features

Unlike the Pro Max Tower T2, there's very little room for customizing the ports available to you. But why would you need that? There's almost everything you could ask for already included with the Dell Tower Plus.

On the front, you'll find three USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports (5Gbps) and a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (10Gbps), alongside an SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack, all lined up in a neat row an inch or two beneath the power button. These 'essentials' are useful for quick access.

The party is really happening at the rear, however, with an additional four USB-A 2.0 ports (480Mbps) – mostly useful for peripherals – as well as two additional USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ports for even more connectivity. You'll find this alongside a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 4 (40Gbps) and an HDMI port. You also have access to an RJ45 Ethernet port (2.5GbE) as well as A/V options in the form of an S/PDIF Optical port to transfer digital audio signals to a soundbar or receiver and 2x Sterio Audio Line in/Lind Out for stereo sound. There's also a Kensington Lock Slot for additional peace of mind.

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 (2x2) 802.11be chipset grants access to the latest Wi-Fi standards, with support for Bluetooth 5.4 also available.

Our configuration ditched one of the expansion bays in favour of an additional HDMI port and three DisplayPort slots. In total, there are several expansion slots available. There's space for two M.2 SSDs, two 3.5in HDD bays, and three PCIe expansion slots of x4, x4, and x16. You can also expand your RAM with two slots supporting up to 64GB DDR5 memory.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Performance

The Arrow Lake-based Intel Core Ultra 9 285K is the beating heart of the highest-end Dell Tower Plus configuration – with 24 cores and a 3.7GHz clockspeed with turbo up to 5.7GHz. The other options available include Intel Core Ultra 5 225, Intel Core Ultra 7 265, Intel Core Ultra 7 265K, and Intel Core Ultra 285 processors.

Our graphics card was the high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080, with 16GB GDDR7 memory – although you can also pick up this machine with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5050, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070, Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Ti GPUs, or integrated Intel UHD Graphics.

These components were included alongside 32GB DDR5 RAM and a 2TB SSD. There is as little as a 512GB SSD and up to 4TB SSD storage available in the most expensive configuration, and between 16GB DDR5 and 64GB DDR5 memory. The price of the machine, of course, varies wildly depending on which CPU, GPU, and memory options you select, with your choice of graphics card offering the biggest swings.

The performance in our configuration was exceptional, as determined through testing with Geekbench 6, with a single-core score of 2,914 and a multi-core score of 19,697. However, it's worth mentioning that it's a little less than we registered with the same CPU in the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 – with scores of 3,202 and 22,583. That's likely due to the higher power and cooling proficiency in this desktop. That said, it's still a result that trounces many other modern CPUs – and you won't find similar performance in a laptop. You are, however, able to find a handful of AMD processors that eclipse its performance, especially in the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO series.

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU is everything you could ask for, with our OpenCL benchmarking producing a brilliant result of 272,793 – putting it near the top for current desktop-grade GPUs and about 1.5 times more powerful than the same GPU you'll find in laptops. For performances much better than this, you're effectively looking at finding a workstation or desktop PC with workstation-grade performance.

There's nothing especially standout about its SSD performance, with great reads and writes of 7,044MB/s and 6,130MB/s respectively. They are, however, a lot slower than the extraordinary performance of the Dell Pro Max Tower T2's 12,008MB/s and 12,674MB/s.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250: Is it worth it?

There's something for almost everybody in the Dell Tower Plus. But we should first highlight the elements that are consistent across all versions, including its excellent 27.5L size and under-13kg weight, alongside a great build and clean, minimalist design. Apart from the lack of a CD/DVD drive, there are plenty of ports that you can take advantage of, too.

Whether it represents value for money, however, comes down to the variations and which end of the spectrum you're coming from. For entry-level users needing a basic desktop PC that can handle the lightest, day-to-day tasks, it might be worth considering the Dell Tower Desktop – available from £599. For power users hoping for workstation-grade performance, it's worth considering an upgrade to a machine like the Dell Pro Max Tower T2 desktop PC, which offers much more juice. You can also choose from a far broader range of components to tailor your machine to the specific workloads you want to run, rather than stock options.

Our configuration was a little expensive for what it was, but not overpriced to the point we wouldn't recommend it – you're just more likely to get the best value if you're a mid-range user. In isolation, however, it's a brilliant desktop PC with a clean design and a small, lightweight frame that will please almost all users.

Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 specifications