Dell Optiplex 3020 - Advice Please

Lemlin

Hi folks

I know nothing about PCs but need to get a PC to work from home. In work, we use Dell OptiPlex 3020....

http://www.dell.com/ie/business/p/optiplex-3020-desktop/pd?oc=ca016d3020mt11hsw&model_id=optiplex-3020-desktop&l=en&s=bsd

One of those along with a 22 inch Dell monitor is costing me €700 with delivery and VAT.

Dell S2216H Monitor

Could I get better bang for my buck though?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

savemejebus

I'd say you could build or even buy better (with a bigger monitor) but it wouldn't have whatever warranty you would get from dell.

Is it a machine that your work will need to administer, put a specific build or software on? If so you might have to go with whatever they use as standard but they would also probably get you a deal on it.

cml387

You need to talk to your IT department.

Working from home brings restrictions on what you can do with the PC, internet access, encryption etc. etc.

Lemlin

cml387 wrote: »

You need to talk to your IT department.

Working from home brings restrictions on what you can do with the PC, internet access, encryption etc. etc.

It's a small company with about 50 staff. IT guy hadnt time to help me when I asked!

Grawns

I'm looking for something similar. Don't want to build it myself. Mainly for accounts some personal stuff. No IT department to talk to:)

Would you guys recommend this spec? Is there something better available for the same price or less online or in store.

Thanks

K.O.Kiki

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€119.43 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (€65.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€35.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€69.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€25.13 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply @Mindfactory(€36.44)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (€102.72 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €455.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-05 17:37 CEST+0200

TBH for an office machine I don't think you need more power than a Core i3 offers.
SSD is where you would notice the most speed improvement.

If your IT department has a contract with Dell or whomever, they will supply you with the machine anyway.

Lemlin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i3-6100 3.7GHz Dual-Core Processor (€119.43 @ Mindfactory)
Motherboard: ASRock H110M-ITX Mini ITX LGA1151 Motherboard (€65.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Memory: Crucial 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (€35.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Storage: Samsung 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (€69.98 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Zalman ZM-T1 PLUS MicroATX Mini Tower Case (€25.13 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply @Mindfactory(€36.44)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (€102.72 @ Mindfactory)
Total: €455.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-05 17:37 CEST+0200

TBH for an office machine I don't think you need more power than a Core i3 offers.
SSD is where you would notice the most speed improvement.

If your IT department has a contract with Dell or whomever, they will supply you with the machine anyway.

Someone has suggested I'd need 8gb of RAM. Is this correct?

Would I be better off with something like this?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/lenovo-c40-215-touchscreen-allinone-pc/329305/397.0.0

IRAC War

For the sake of your sanity avoid PC World, their service stinks. Grab something off Amazon, whose service is brilliant - they're usually cheaper too!

Lemlin

IRAC War wrote: »

For the sake of your sanity avoid PC World, their service stinks. Grab something off Amazon, whose service is brilliant - they're usually cheaper too!

Could you recommend anything with 8gb?

IRAC War

I can't post links I'm afraid but there are some great Dell/HP refurbs on Amazon with 8GB RAM and monitors etc for under €200.

Copper_pipe

How about this?

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Skylake-I3-3-7Ghz-Gaming-Pc-W10-24-TFT-SSD-8Gb-Nvidia-GTX-750TI-2GB-G3-/142076643084?hash=item21146d870c:g:0a8AAOSwyLlXpTRw

IRAC War

There is going to be very little comeback. That's essentially a teenager in a bedroom building PCs and fair play to him but support Irish teenagers and buy off adverts :pac:

Bazzo

I know a lot of people recommend Dell for office workstations but personally I can't stand them. I find their towers to be way overpriced for what they are. Do they also still use a unique form factor and make it difficult or impossible to change out parts?

OP the best bang for buck you'll usually get is by building yourself, Kiki's build from earlier is considerably better than any pre-built system you'll get for the same money(without going second hand as that doesn't really seem suitable to your situation).

However, it's understandable if you don't want to build it yourself, and if you're set on buying a pre-built I'd advise something like this.

There are also some systems that come with no OS that you could buy and then buy a seperate windows key to install yourself like this.

Ultimately you should probably just shop around yourself, sites like amazon are good or recently I actually bought a couple office PCs off Tesco Direct up north that are completely fine for the purpose they serve and were very reasonably priced. The main specs to keep an eye out for are the processor and RAM. You'll probably want 8gb of DDR3 RAM and an i3 processor. Any improvement on this would be a bonus, ie. an i5 processor or DDR4 RAM. There are also AMD processors which I'm sure would suit your needs but I'm so out of the loop with AMD CPUs at the minute that I haven't a clue what you'd want to be aiming for, someone else may be able to advise you.

K.O.Kiki

I'm confused, are you only looking for pre-built PC?

Call Dell and configure a Dell Vostro 3200 or 3650 with a Core i3 or i5, then order extra RAM yourself (DDR3L 1600)

I'm annoyed they don't even seem to offer SSD as an option on the lower end though; that's where you'd see the most real-world improvements.

IRAC War

Bazzo wrote: »

I know a lot of people recommend Dell for office workstations but personally I can't stand them. I find their towers to be way overpriced for what they are. Do they also still use a unique form factor and make it difficult or impossible to change out parts?

They're very difficult to upgrade but at less than €100 for a tower, for office work this is an area you just can't beat on price when building yourself. I build machines as a sideline and if it's genuinely office and web application then a refurb is the way to go.

Lemlin

An IT lad I used to work with has offered me this:
dell 3010 8gig ram, 19" brand new monitor brand new keyboard and mouse, 250 gig hard drive Windows 10,
Pentium dual core processor
€250

IRAC War

Lemlin wrote: »

An IT lad I used to work with has offered me this:
dell 3010 8gig ram, 19" brand new monitor brand new keyboard and mouse, 250 gig hard drive Windows 10,
Pentium dual core processor
€250

Ask him what processor it is exactly and not to be a stingey sod with the hard drive :pac:

To be fair it probably is all that the machines came with but see if he'll fire in another drive for you if you buy it off amazon.

Lemlin

IRAC War wrote: »

Ask him what processor it is exactly and not to be a stingey sod with the hard drive :pac:

To be fair it probably is all that the machines came with but see if he'll fire in another drive for you if you buy it off amazon.

I asked him what processor and he said 2.7ghz minimum.

What about this?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01G8BE38E/ref=pd_aw_sim_sbs_147_3?ie=UTF8&dpID=41CG5O2gcQL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C70_&psc=1&refRID=P66FDP5G14CVP4H5WAJF

K.O.Kiki

@Lemlin

This is a work machine - buy from Dell.

Because if it ever goes belly-up, you WILL need support ASAP for a fix/replacement so you can get work done.

IRAC War

Lemlin wrote: »

I asked him what processor and he said 2.7ghz minimum.

What about this?

It's not really about clock speed, that's a bit like engine CC. It's a fairly good indication of how powerful the PC is but a 2.0L Montego is obviously going to be left behind by a modern 2.0L car. Try and find out what CPU it is, model number and architecture. The architecture will be something like 'Sandy Bridge' or 'Ivy Bridge' but the model number on it's own will be grand.

Lemlin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

@Lemlin

This is a work machine - buy from Dell.

Because if it ever goes belly-up, you WILL need support ASAP for a fix/replacement so you can get work done.

I've been trying to get them on the chat option but haven't been able to. Their number from the website also wouldn't ring. If I get them I basically want to build

8gb RAM
i5 processor
500gb hard drive

Is there anything else I should look for?

Lemlin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I'm confused, are you only looking for pre-built PC?

Call Dell and configure a Dell Vostro 3200 or 3650 with a Core i3 or i5, then order extra RAM yourself (DDR3L 1600)

I'm annoyed they don't even seem to offer SSD as an option on the lower end though; that's where you'd see the most real-world improvements.

This machine offers 128gb SSD

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bdv606&model_id=vostro-3650-desktop&c=ie&l=en&s=bsd&cs=iebsdt1&

€399 plus VAT. I could up the RAM on it to 8gb.

Copper_pipe

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65011&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

K.O.Kiki

Lemlin wrote: »

This machine offers 128gb SSD

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bdv606&model_id=vostro-3650-desktop&c=ie&l=en&s=bsd&cs=iebsdt1&

€399 plus VAT. I could up the RAM on it to 8gb.

Looks good.

Lemlin

Copper_pipe wrote: »

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65011&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

This one looks good

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65010&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

davo2001

Lemlin wrote: »

This one looks good

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65010&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

What kind of work will you be doing on it?

K.O.Kiki

Lemlin wrote: »

This one looks good

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65010&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

Nah, the price is hiked by the addition of a useless Geforce 730.

Go with the Vostro 3650 you'd linked earlier.

Lemlin

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Nah, the price is hiked by the addition of a useless Geforce 730.

Go with the Vostro 3650 you'd linked earlier.

That one is €650 delivered.

The 3650 is €400 plus VAT and delivery and then upgrading the RAM so will probably be around €650 by the time all is said and done.

Lemlin

davo2001 wrote: »

What kind of work will you be doing on it?

General office work, a lot of Excel.

davo2001

Lemlin wrote: »

General office work, a lot of Excel.

No need for 8GB of RAM then.

Lemlin

davo2001 wrote: »

No need for 8GB of RAM then.

Will it help boost the machine a bit if I've slow internet though?

IRAC War

Lemlin wrote: »

Will it help boost the machine a bit if I've slow internet though?

The difference in cost of 4GB v 8GB is so small in rela terms you're better off with 8GB. Do you need it, probably not, but as more crap gets installed on to the PC more stuff hangs around in RAM. Tabbed browsing, people now open multiple tabs with their web browsers and genuinely big excel spreadsheets all combine to making spending €15 now worth it in comparison to paying someone €50 to fit a €15 part down the line.

davo2001

Lemlin wrote: »

Will it help boost the machine a bit if I've slow internet though?

Not in the slightest.

K.O.Kiki

davo2001 wrote: »

No need for 8GB of RAM then.

I have lots of Office programs etc. open daily, and I'm pretty sure I can go past 4Gb.
Will post screenshots tomorrow.

Lemlin

Have started looking on Adverts. Some good second hand value to be had and thinking it may be the way to go. Any recommendations?

savemejebus

Lemlin wrote: »

Have started looking on Adverts. Some good second hand value to be had and thinking it may be the way to go. Any recommendations?

is work paying for this or is it coming out of your own pocket? Will you be looking to claim it as a business expense?

Just wondering as I'd guess no job would pay for a second hand machine from adverts and it's unlikely you'd be able to claim one as a business expense.

IMO If you need a machine that is guaranteed to be reliable for official work purposes and your not comfortable building your own then the only way to assure this is by buying new, you can get decent warrantys on the dell vostro range for not too much.

With regards to ram I think you should go with as much as your budget allows, 8gb is not too much at all, but if you find it expensive to add to a dell build then you can always buy it from crucial afterwards.

K.O.Kiki

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

I have lots of Office programs etc. open daily, and I'm pretty sure I can go past 4Gb.
Will post screenshots tomorrow.

Go for 8Gb RAM

Shougeki

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Go for 8Gb RAM

Ha just decided to check my usage on my work machine. 6.7GB used. 4.4GB of that be browsers....... lol

IRAC War

Shougeki wrote: »

Ha just decided to check my usage on my work machine. 6.7GB used. 4.4GB of that be browsers....... lol

That much porn while working must be distracting... :pac:

Lemlin

This any good?

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/dell-optiplex-9020-micro/11070791