Dell OptiPlex 790 Mini Tower Computer

Small Format Desktop Still Fast Enough and Handy For Projects – While these aren't the newest computers on the block, there's certainly still a lot of refurbished units around for sale. I needed a relatively fast (but cheap) small form factory computer to run guitar effects processing as I was building a stand alone unit. NUC's or compu-sticks just didn't have the processing power and cost just as much. While… Read more

scanning through Ebay, I came across these refurbished units. Boasting an I7 quad core processor @2.7GHz, 4GB Ram (which I can add to cheaper than ordering the upgrade), 128GB SSD running Win10 and an optical drive (which I don't really need) - all in a mini form factory (it's only 240x250x65mm and weighs a couple of kg). I don't know how they jammed all this in there! Some of the other things I needed where HDMI output (albeit a display port which you need an adapter for) and 2 or 3 USB ports - this had 5 on the back and two on the front. A couple of things about these units is they come with an Ethernet port, no wifi and no USB3.0 ports, they're all USB 2.0. Not an issue for my case as audio interfaces these days are still only running on USB2.0. The unit boots up quickly and is very responsive - exactly what I wanted. I'm sure a lot has to do with the SSD in place of a standard HDD. Only having 4GB of RAM at the moment doesn't seem to be worrying it (again, you can put more in). I also read up about these units and they have a bad reputation for faulty power supplies, hence why I think they're refurbished. I haven't had any issues with mine at present and I don't think I will unless I'm running it full pelt 24/7. I'm also planning to disconnect the optical drive to give it a little more wiggle room on the power requirements. Really, this is steal for what I paid. It's also probably overkill for what I'm going to use it for. But when it comes down to price and having a bit more in the tank, it's hitting all the right spots. In-fact, if it performs as well as it should, I'll be buying a few more and retiring a lot of older computers in other projects (like arcade machines). These days, there's no reason to wait 5 minutes for a computer to boot anymore.