OptiPlex 7020

[Mark]

Anyone got ANY info on when the 7020's will be out?  Rumors or anything?

I nixed the VDI project as I don't believe the ROI is there for us for 30 desktops and we are going to get new workstations before the end of the year, but I'll hate to buy 30 7010's just to find out the 7020's are out the next day!

My Dell rep hasn't heard anything yet, but the 3020 and 9020 are out.

[Jim Jensen]

I just received a 7010 - what's the difference supposed to be?

[Mark]

Dunno, it's just the newer version.

Previously we had 745, 760, etc.  Just depends on what year you buy it and I simply don't want to buy the year end model when the newer model is available.

Our desktops are on a 5 year life-cycle plan, so the newer the better.

[Jeff Golas]

I can vouch the 7010s and 3010s are solid units, go with SSD and your CSRs will need seat belts.

Been battling my dell rep (literally almost screaming over the phone) regarding the new Venue 11's they're coming out with. They're literally changing options daily and its causing some issues.

[Mark]

How much did the SSD effect the price?  What's the cost difference?

[Charlie Charbonneau]

Just purchased 12 7010's for $1200 each.  Office and adobe.  No monitors.  128 gb SSD drives 8 gb ram and 2 dual vid cards for up to 4 monitors.  We currently use 2 but are expanding to 3.  I've rolled out 1 atm.  But it was super fast!  Loved it!  Might keep one for my office!

[Charlie Charbonneau]

Just purchased 12 7010's for $1200 each.  Office and adobe.  No monitors.  128 gb SSD drives 8 gb ram and 2 dual vid cards for up to 4 monitors.  We currently use 2 but are expanding to 3.  I've rolled out 1 atm.  But it was super fast!  Loved it!  Might keep one for my office!

.  Oh yeah 3.2 ghz proc.  sorry brain is little fuzzy today!

[Bob]

I have two of the exact setup as Charlies, sitting boxed in my office waiting for me to get to them.  Not sure who I'll give to just yet.

[Mark]

I'm just not sure if I can justify SSD yet.. I'll ask her to quote it.

[Billy Welsh]

If our conf room machine is any judge, you'll get your $ back quickly on the SSD.  They will be able to work faster for sure.

[Jeff Golas]

MAKE it worth it - scale back processor (nothing we run seriously needs an i7...I think I have our CSRs on i5's or i3's and they scream...the hard drive on the other hand will pay dividends.

[Mark]

It's a $5,000 difference to go the SSD option.  Do you guys use roaming profiles?  I know that SSD makes a HUGE difference, I just haven't actually experienced it.  And, will they last 5 years?

[Jeff Golas]

I don't buy the 225 terabyte gold-plated 440v SSD, just the usual raptors they come with which are usually around a $250 premium over a mechanical.

Yes we use roaming profiles but thats only part of it...just about anything anymore is very hard drive heavy and in trying different combos I found in most cases the cpu didn't matter as much as having a fast hard drive in 100% of the cases. ESPECIALLY for laptops where encryption is important.

[Mark]

Yeah, I have been saying for years that hard drives are the bottleneck.  This is just the 128GB one. We are buying 29 machines so the difference in $5k.  They are only i5 which is probably overkill, along with the 8GB of RAM which also might be overkill, but I am spec'ing them for 5 years and things change in less time than that.

Plus, we have some heavy power users here.

[Jeff Golas]

Thats an avg of 172 premium. Not bad and honestly well well worth it. Amortize 172 / 5 and you're talking under $40 a year.

[Jeff Zylstra]

It's interesting to watch SysInternal's process monitor and whatever their hard drive monitor is called, when trying to diagnose software problems.  There are a LOT of read and writes going on in the background when you're working.  A lot of temp files are created that you never think about, but  it all affects performance.   Windows 7 is light years better with roaming profiles than XP was, but you will notice a marked difference between an SSD drive and a mechanical drive.

[Mark]

How about the 1GB AMD RADEON HD 7470?  Anyone using those?  If so, are you using a splitter or display port adapter - or what for dual monitors?

[Billy Welsh]

FWIW I am on an Optiplex 980, 8GB RAM, WIN 7 64-bit, with dual ATI Radeon HD 4550's.

I don't know off the top of my head what on-board RAM the cards have, but I do know I have been victimized by the occasional BSOD, and it's always been related to video.  Updating drivers has not helped.  Most recent one was last week, right after a "tune-up" from the contract techs.

[Mark]

They are pushing me to use a Display Port to VGA adapter off the on-board graphics and a 1GB Radeon card for dual monitors.  why do I need this card if I'm not fully utilizing it?  We have a 7010 here with dual monitors and it does not have an added graphics card.

this Radeon supports up to 4 monitors.  Why are they pushing me this direction?

[Jeff Golas]

Negatory on DP to VGA adapter...I used those on some Vostros I bought and having issues. Every once in a while they go nuts and you get a nice rainbow effect on the screen until you unplug/replug the adapter. Only reason I went that route was these machines are mainly for intern and hotel-ing type use and I had a crapload of 17" VGA monitors still around. Stick with native video or chalk up the dough to get newer monitors. (if anything, just keep the signal digital).

[Jeff Golas]

CORRECTION...

I figured I'd make another post so this makes more sense, but I just realized those Vostros I mentioned are using HDMI to VGA, not Displayport. I don't have any experience with DP>VGA but I'm pretty sure the adapters came in the box with the Opti's.

I just took a look and the set up I used on ours was a vid card with a single DVI output and then used a DP>DVI adapter for the other.

[Mark]

Ok, that's what I was getting at.  Here's my question for Dell:

The ONBOARD video supports dual monitors.  Why did they add a RADEON card which supports 4 monitors just to tell me that I will use the onboard card for one monitor and the RADEON for one monitor.  I don't get that.  why not just use the RADEON for ALL monitrs or don't eveb buy the RADEON.

Make sense?

[Jeff Zylstra]

Makes perfect sense.  I have a couple 7010s that have dual monitors off the MB.  Works fine.  Any time I use a "high performance" video card for dual monitors, I have problems like BSODs.  Not necessarily with that model, but other models.  If you don't need the high performance graphics, stick with on-board video.  I've always found it to be more reliable.

[Mark]

I agree, Jeff.  Thank you, Sir.

[Jeff Zylstra]

You're most welcome.

[Jeff Golas]

If one of those monitors IS VGA that may be why...the better graphics cards still *natively* support analog in some cases whereas the onboard may not anymore.

[Mark]

7010 onboard is VGA.