Needed a spare system for IoT development that I didn't mind sacrificing if I messed something up. These inexpensive refurbished dell machines are perfect for that, especially since they come with a licensed copy of Windows 10 Pro bundled in with it.
It has loads of USB ports (6 x USB3, 4 x USB2) so I can easily connect multiple devices simultaneously without needing an external hub, 1 HDMI port and 2 DisplayPort ports (so 3 monitors are an option), an old school Serial port, and an ethernet port.
The system I received does not have built-in wifi on the board, but it came with a Wifi dongle which worked right away with minimal configuration during the setup process.
It comes with a single 16GB DDR4 memory stick, so I purchased an additional 16GB stick for a total 32GB running in dual channel mode, I believe it maxes out at 64gb if the specifications if the motherboard specifications (Q170) are correct.
There are limiting factors due to the small form factor of the case in that it has 1 x single lane and 1 x 16 lane PCIE which is only suitable for low profile single height cards, which seriously limits your options to a handful of lower end gaming and older workstation cards with no or very small fans. (Not ideal for modern gaming, crypto mining, or machine learning projects which generally require larger GPU resources).
It has 2 spare SATA connectors, but only 1 SATA power connector, but the power supply is only 180w so I wouldn't expect to be running too many additional devices before needing that to be upgraded anyway.
It comes with a rather small 250gb (by todays standards) no-name NVME SSD and a DVD/RW which I'll probably never use as it makes a horrible drink holder in the vertical position. ;)
The installation process was simple, plug a few cables in, boot it up and follow the prompts. I did run into a small issue on the second boot though where the BIOS decided it wanted to boot from a non-existent network source rather than the SSD and did so with a fairly obscure message that your average user wouldn't understand, a simple change in the BIOS to force it to use the SSD resolved that. As it's a Dell, it doesn't tend to tell you how to get into the bios on boot, so I just tried the usual assortment of keys (F2, F12, and/or esc) until one of them worked.
It's not the fastest little beasty when compared to modern offerings, but it works great as a back up development machine and possible cannon fodder for some of my more risky and ill-advised projects. Would probably work great as a basic desktop machine for normal day-to-day stuff, and you really can't beat the price considering it comes with everything minus a monitor, but a flatscreen TV using HDMI works just fine in an pinch.
I'll probably end up buying a couple of these just to keep some spares around or perhaps to run as a lightweight development or media servers.
Definitely would recommend.
(See images for detailed specifications)
| Standing screen display size | 23.8 |
|---|---|
| Display Resolution | 3840 x 2160 |
| Max screen resolution | 3840x2160 |
| Processor | 3.2 GHz core_i5 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Memory Speed | 2133 MHz |
| Hard Drive | 256 GB SSD |
| Graphics coprocessor | Intel HD Graphics 530 |
| Chipset brand | Intel |
| Card description | Integrated |
| Graphics Memory Size | 128 MB |
| Wireless Standard | 802.11n |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 4 |
| Brand | Dell |
| Series | Optiplex |
| Item model number | 7040 |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro |
| Product Dimensions | 49.02 x 38.86 x 25.65 cm; 5.44 kg |
| Item dimensions L x W x H | 49 x 38.9 x 25.7 Centimetres |
| Colour | Black |
| Processor Brand | Intel |
| Number of Processors | 1 |
| Memory Type | DDR SDRAM |
| Flash memory size | 256 GB |
| Hard Disk Interface | Solid State |
| Hard drive rotational speed | 7200 RPM |
| Optical Storage Device Type | DVD-RW |
| Power Source | AC |
