XPS 8930 Special Edition - Upgrades/changing motherboard

According to the service manual for the XPS 8930 the CPU can be removed.

Page 102 is a picture and starting on page 101 is the procedure for removing the CPU.

The CPU is not soldered in -- it can be upgraded, but you'll be limited to the eighth-generation CPUs (when Intel releases the ninth generation in the future, the system will almost certainly not take it).

Changing the case will be an exercise fraught with frustration not just for this model but for ANY name-brand pre-built desktop.  This one is fairly upgradeable (the power supply is standard) but the case wiring, heatsink assembly, and other components are proprietary to the XPS and will not easily be adapted to a standard case.

If you want to upgrade later, consider spending a bit more up front and either building a system yourself from off the shelf parts, or having a boutique builder that  does custom builds do that for you.  It's very common for ASUS, MSI, etc. to update their mainboards for future CPU generations -- something none of the name brand system vendors do (they're in the business of selling systems, after all).

When pricing out parts, consider the cost of just an upgraded case, replacement power supply, mainboard and copy of Windows - all of which are proprietary in a name-brand system, and would need to be replaced for a down the road upgrade.

Name brand systems do sell for compelling prices -- but they carry severe upgrade restrictions in exchange for that.

Thanks Vic,

Can you let me know what page you see that? I reviewed the manual (albeit not entirely) and every reference I could find to the CPU was only about error codes or just generally.

Yes!  I replaced it with an i9-9900k.