My company sells a lot of Dell equipment, and as a result our Dell rep hooked me up with a beefy 9020 Micro and a mid range 3020 Micro. I wasn't sure what to expect to be honest, all my past computers have been self built with big video cards and recently water cooled. I haven't purchased pre-built desktop since 2000. Felt like a downgrade not getting a machine with dedicated graphics, but I wasn't going to turn my nose up at a killer deal.
Here are the specs:
Dell 9020 Micro:
- i7-4875T
- 16gb RAM
- 256gb SSD
- 7260 AC
Dell 3020 Micro
- i5-4590T
- 4gb RAM
- 500gb Hybrid Drive (swapped for an old 64gb SSD I had sitting around)
- 7260 AC
I spent my first day on the 9020 Micro today, worked from home deploying some software for one of our customers. Lots of RDP windows, documentation open, etc. Not really taxing or anything, but the little guy is super snappy and dead silent.
Here is a picture to show how small it is.
The 3020 Micro looks identical on the outside. Swapped out our bedroom TV computer for it. The built in wireless AC is the biggest difference I notice, also it is smaller and quieter the Mini-ITX case it replaced.
Overall, here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Very quiet
- 2x USB 2.0, 4x USB 3.0
- VGA out (Legacy ports are still useful)
- Display port out
- Case is well made, and sturdy, both metal and plastic are not cheap feeling
- Wireless with external replaceable antenna
- Tiny
- 3 year warranty
- Gigabit Ethernet (sometimes manufacturers sacrifice RJ-45 for thinness, I'm looking at you Lenovo Yoga)
Cons:
- No HDMI
- Mounting options require purchasing extra mounts that are not cheap
- External power brick (personally I don't care, but I know some people do)
- More expensive than other manufacturers
- SO-DIMMs, so RAM upgrades come at a premium
I wish I had the option to hold on to the promo till Broadwell (better GPU performance), but overall zero regrets on the little guys. It is been a long road for Intel integrated graphics and efficiency improvements on CPUs in general, but we are getting to the point where tiny computers can rock just about everything (except heavy GPU work)
Here are the specs:
Dell 9020 Micro:
- i7-4875T
- 16gb RAM
- 256gb SSD
- 7260 AC
Dell 3020 Micro
- i5-4590T
- 4gb RAM
- 500gb Hybrid Drive (swapped for an old 64gb SSD I had sitting around)
- 7260 AC
I spent my first day on the 9020 Micro today, worked from home deploying some software for one of our customers. Lots of RDP windows, documentation open, etc. Not really taxing or anything, but the little guy is super snappy and dead silent.
Here is a picture to show how small it is.
The 3020 Micro looks identical on the outside. Swapped out our bedroom TV computer for it. The built in wireless AC is the biggest difference I notice, also it is smaller and quieter the Mini-ITX case it replaced.
Overall, here are the pros and cons:
Pros:
- Very quiet
- 2x USB 2.0, 4x USB 3.0
- VGA out (Legacy ports are still useful)
- Display port out
- Case is well made, and sturdy, both metal and plastic are not cheap feeling
- Wireless with external replaceable antenna
- Tiny
- 3 year warranty
- Gigabit Ethernet (sometimes manufacturers sacrifice RJ-45 for thinness, I'm looking at you Lenovo Yoga)
Cons:
- No HDMI
- Mounting options require purchasing extra mounts that are not cheap
- External power brick (personally I don't care, but I know some people do)
- More expensive than other manufacturers
- SO-DIMMs, so RAM upgrades come at a premium
I wish I had the option to hold on to the promo till Broadwell (better GPU performance), but overall zero regrets on the little guys. It is been a long road for Intel integrated graphics and efficiency improvements on CPUs in general, but we are getting to the point where tiny computers can rock just about everything (except heavy GPU work)
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