Product Notes: Dell OptiPlex 780

September 29, 2009

In late September, Dell announced new tower, desktop, and small desktop systems branded as the OptiPlex 780 (a redesigned ultra-small desktop version will be released later this year). The OptiPlex 780 will supplant the OptiPlex 760 line introduced in November 2008.

Design and Changes

The OptiPlex 780 has the same general enclosures as the previous generation OptiPlex 760. As in the 760, there is significant variance in size, ranging from 1.16 cubic feet for the tower, 0.56 cubic feet for the desktop, and 0.35 cubic feet for the small desktop. Information Systems & Computing (ISC) believes that the most users will be well served by the small desktop.

The OptiPlex 780 adds the option of more advanced Intel management technology (vPro/iAMT 5.0 Professional) which had previously only been available on the OptiPlex 960. It also moves the OptiPlex 7x0 series from DDR2 to DDR3 memory.

88% efficient power supplies are available with all OptiPlex 780 form factors. When correctly configured, the OptiPlex 780 is EPEAT Gold-compliant and Energy Star 5.0-certified.

Ordering Notes

Several considerations when ordering an OptiPlex 780:

1. ISC suggests choosing the Energy Star 5.0 Category B efficiency option (for dual core processors) or the the Energy Star 5.0 Category D efficiency option (for quad core processors). This will require selection of the 88% efficient power supply and does not prevent otherwise appropriate system configuration.
2. ISC strongly suggests configuring the OptiPlex 780 with a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad processor rather than the currently available Pentium or Celeron processors.
3. With the OptiPlex 780, ISC continues to strongly suggest a discrete video card instead of integrated video. ISC believes that most users will be well served by the ATI Radeon HD 3450 (which supports VGA and DVI) or the Radeon HD 3470 (which supports DVI and DisplayPort).
4. ISC suggests choosing Dell's higher-quality UltraSharp displays. A cost savings option commonly employed at the University is to buy high quality displays every other life cycle instead of every life cycle.
5. ISC suggests choosing the VPro systems management option.
6. If a system is going to be in use for the full four-year life cycle, a four year warranty (which adds about $75 to the overall cost over a three year warranty) may be appropriate.
7. Many Schools and Centers at the University may wish to choose the "Keep Your Hard Drive" option, which allows the School or Center to retain a defective hard drive when receiving a replacement hard drive under warranty.

See ISC's Performance Desktop Purchasing Guide and Value Desktop Purchasing Guide for more configuration hints. As of September 2009, configuring an OptiPlex 780 to the performance desktop specification can be done for approximately $1,050 to $1,300 while a value desktop is approximately $850 to $900. The cost delta between an OptiPlex 780 and an OptiPlex 760 with the same general configuration (configuration can not be precisely duplicated because of basic system differences) is currently about $10.

Analysis

The OptiPlex 780 is an incremental update to Dell's mainstream enterprise desktops, with a slightly improved chipset, the option of more management capability, and greater configuration flexibility - all of which close the feature gap between Dell OptiPlex 7x0 and 9x0 series.

ISC will follow up with a full review of the OptiPlex 780 as soon as testing has been completed.

--John Mulhern III, Lead for Client Technologies, ISC Technology Support Services (September 30, 2009)