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Hello,

Management decided to start updating our oldest computers, some of them still have XP.

My users do most of their work on a remote server (Win2003 Terminal Server) but we are rolling out a new ERP system which will be accessed using remoteapp from a Win2008 RDS Server so I still need the workstations to run basically MS Office 2010 and the occasional web search. The OS must be Win7 Pro.

My budget is £400 per computer (keyboard, mouse, monitor not included). I already have two that would probably fit the bill, HP Prodesk 400 G2 and Dell OptiPlex 3020 Mini Tower .

We currently have all HP hardware (servers, NAS, switches, workstations) but I do not want to overlook any option.

What would you guys recommend?

EDIT- Minor errors and non-existent OS

@HP @Dell_Technologies

14 Spice ups
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I really like the Optiplex line. Not sure how many you’re looking at, but an SSD upgrade is well worth it in my opinion.

9 Spice ups
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We get Lenovo E73’s. I know theres been a lot of bad press with the whole spyware thing but based on the computer alone i’d say they’re pretty good and they fall within your budget. One thing i would say is i you want 8.1 you have to redo them with the disks that come with them as they are installed with windows 7 and it can take forever also they come with a lot of bloatware but once all that has been removed they’re pretty nippy

1 Spice up
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Win7XP Pro? I hope you mean Win7 Pro. :slight_smile:

1 Spice up
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I like the Dell Optiplex’s as well.

Desktop hardware and Server equipment are pretty much independent of each other.

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Agreed, @Dell_Technologies OptiPlex line is solid

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The Dell looks like the better deal out of the two. Twice the RAM and Hard drive space. They may never use the machines to their fullest but at least they would have the option then. We primarily use Optiplex 7010s and I am extremely happy with them. We did spend the extra money to get SSDs in them. Well worth the extra cost.

3 Spice ups
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The Dell Optiplex’s are what we use here and they work very nice and are cheap. As others have said, an SSD would greatly increase performance in a budget PC.

2 Spice ups
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One of the things I like the most in HP is the Next Day Warranty. Anyone has experience with Dell’s support service?

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As long as you get Pro Support from Dell, you are in good hands. Never had an issue getting a tech or part next day.

2 Spice ups
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Dell support has always been a winner for me, not sure how well they operate in the UK though.

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Using the two links provided, the workstations are similar but the Dell has 8gb memory and a 1TB hard drive. The HP had 4GB memory and a 500GB drive. However, the offer price for the Dell shows £389 and the HP shows £360. Drive size probably isn’t that important between the two, I would always go for better memory but the cost of purchasing additional memory might offset.

I have used both HP and Dell for major business solutions — servers, laptops, and workstations.

I like both brands and I haven’t nec. seen one outweigh the other in performance. However, because of mgt. and purchasing familiarity, I have dealt with Dell more often than HP.

Both MFGs also (usually) have easy to replace, compartmentalized internal hardware. What I mean is that you don’t have to unscrew much to access, say, the hard drive, the CD drive, memory, etc. Most have devices that slide or flip out of the way to allow access to hardware.

One minor thing I have seen regarding business PCs/laptops is that the Dell usually has less OEM junkware than HPs. I only leave on OEM software required for devices (drivers usually). I remove all other OEM software, encryption/security, backup, update, toolbars, etc.

With all that said, if you are already in an HP environment, HP works well for you, you are familiar with it, and their support is good, I would stick with HP. It is a time and cost saver to have a complete OEM matched device (PCs or servers or switches, etc) environment and when some of your out of warranty devices go bad, you can keep them around for spare parts.

Did you mean, when you wrote Win7XP Pro —> Win7 and XP Pro?

Although you didn’t mention it, I am sure you know that 2003 server is approaching end of life within a few months as well.

Hope that helps

@HP @Dell_Technologies

2 Spice ups
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An OptiPlex out of the box is a great computer, if the users are connecting to a server to do the majority of their work and all the files are hosted on servers then upgrading to SSD might not even be necessary.

I have been using Dell for my entire career, I have never had any issues with their support, if it is still under warranty I simply contact Dell, do some minor diagnosis with them on the line and they either send me that part or a tech shows up the next day to fix the computer.

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We have a range of Opti 780-1070’s here and they have worked pretty well I have rarely had physical failures on them, and when I have support has been pretty good, I usually have parts or a person here the next day

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The Win7XP was a typing error, type something while thinking of another. Our Win 2003 servers will be powered down in 2 months.

Less bloatware is a big plus, we still do not have a golden image in place and do most of our formats using the installer (Win7 Pro disk with OEM key), no VL yet.

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We have both ProDesk 600s and Optiplex 3020s. Hands down Dell wins. Initial quality of the HP units was very poor. I had to replace 3 power supplies and 2 motherboards out of the box. Plus their tech support is terrible, they shipped the wrong parts so many times I was ready to throw all of the PCs in the dumpster.

I personally would go with the Dells and as trelstadtech said, go for the SSD upgrade.

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Lenovo M73 tiny computers. Intel Core i3. 500gb SSHD, 4gb ram. they fly.

2 Spice ups
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I may get some neg. feedback on this but here is my opinion on the SSDs in this scenario…

A few people mentioned SSDs for performance and there is no arguing that SSDs have faster performance, however, I would not go with SSD on a budget system and here are some reasons why.

Frist, if you cannot purchase the PCs with an SSD drive INSTEAD of a regular platter hard drive, you are adding extra costs. Actually, even if you can purchase the PCs with an SSD, it will likely add a little more cost to the system. However, you can probably find a good use for all those extra 3.5 drives you have left over.

Also, unless the new workstations come with the mounting hardware for a 2.5 drive, you will have your SSD sitting loosely in a 3.5 drive bay. This may not be a big deal (and I usually do not have qualms about doing this in some of my personal systems) but it is not a clean set up either. Purchasing the additional mounting hardware (if nec.) will also increase costs.

Lastly, you will only see the performance increase when the hard drive is accessed for lengthy amounts of time, which is mostly initial boot up time and software install/load times. Once the software is running in memory, you won’t see as much a benefit from the SSD. The more memory a system has also means less caching to the hard drive so less visible benefit from the SSD.

3 Spice ups
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We will not go for the SSD, specially with the 8Gb ram. If I could have a 250 GB SSD instead of the 2TB HDD then I would think about it but for now, mostly because of budget I will stick with the 2 TB HDD.

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Buy Dell desktops with 2.5“ drives and you don’t need to worry about getting any adapters when converting to SSD.