Dell Desktops
Sell a Dell desktop, OptiPlex or Precision tower
Any Dell desktop PC — the box with the Dell badge on it, whatever shape it is, standing on the floor, sitting slim on the desk, or hiding behind the monitor. Working or faulty, one machine or a room of them.
Start here
Which shape is your Dell?
This matters more than people expect. The same OptiPlex model shipped in three different sizes, and they are not worth the same — so the shape is half the answer to what you have.
Tower
The tall box that stands on the floor or beside the monitor.
Dell's own name for this size was Mini Tower, shortened to MT on the case and in the model name. The most upgradable of the shapes, and the one most likely to have a graphics card worth mentioning separately.
Small Form Factor (SFF)
The slim flat box that sits on the desk, often under the monitor.
About a third the volume of a tower. Takes a low-profile graphics card at most, which is worth checking before you assume there is not one in there.
Micro (MFF)
The little one, about the size of a hardback book.
Roughly a litre in volume and frequently bolted to the back of a monitor or hidden under the desk, which is why people often do not realise they have one. Dell calls this Micro, or MFF.
All-in-One, and the Ultra
The one where the computer is inside the screen, or inside the stand.
OptiPlex and Inspiron all-in-ones put the machine behind the display. The OptiPlex Ultra goes further and hides a flat module inside the monitor stand, so there is no visible computer at all.
Two shapes you may still meet on older machines: USFF, an ultra-small desktop Dell stopped making around 2014 and replaced with the Micro, and DT, the flat box the monitor used to sit on top of. Both are still worth asking about.
OptiPlex
Which OptiPlex, and from which decade
OptiPlex numbers repeat. Dell used 7010 twice, ten years apart, and tells them apart only by where the size sits in the name.
If the size comes after the number — “OptiPlex 7010 SFF” — it is the 2012 machine. If it comes before — “OptiPlex SFF 7010” — it is the 2023 one. Same four digits, a decade between them. Copying the name exactly as it appears, in the order it appears, saves us both a round of questions.
Numbers that come up most often: 7010, 9020, 7040, 5060, 7060, 3070 and 7070. The first digit is roughly the tier and the last two are roughly the generation, so a 7060 is a better-specified machine than a 3070 despite the lower number — which is exactly the sort of thing that is easier for us to check than to explain.
Cannot find a number anywhere? Tell us the shape, whether it has a DVD slot, and what ports are on the back. That is usually enough to place it within a couple of years.
The rest of the range
Precision towers, and the Dell desktops that are not OptiPlex
Precision desktop workstations were built for CAD, rendering and engineering work rather than office use, and they hold value considerably longer than an office tower of the same age. That is not sentiment about build quality: they take server-grade processors and professional graphics cards that are still useful long after an office machine has nothing anybody wants. Selling a Precision mobile workstation instead? That is the laptop page.
Inspiron and Vostro desktops are the home and small-business half of the range — the machines a private seller is most likely to have. They were built to a different budget from the business ranges, which is worth knowing rather than discovering later, but a long way from worthless — particularly if somebody added memory or a graphics card along the way.
XPS desktops such as the XPS 8950 sit above both: bigger power supplies, proper graphics cards and room to upgrade. Alienware Aurora and Area-51 desktops are the gaming end, and the graphics card in one is usually the single largest part of the figure. Worth saying which card it is if you know — and worth saying “Aurora desktop” rather than just “Aurora”, because Dell has put that name on laptops too.
Getting it to us
Dell desktops are collected, not posted
A tower is heavy and awkward, so desktops normally go by collection rather than post. Tell us what you have and where it is and we will confirm the route and anything it involves before it is arranged.
That includes the small ones. An OptiPlex Micro is about the size of a hardback and it is tempting to assume it can just be popped in the post — ask us first rather than sending it, and we will tell you how it should travel.
Payment is made at the time of collection, once the collector has checked the machine matches what you described. If the machine holds data, say so on the enquiry: eligible storage is wiped and a data erasure certificate issued, and anything that cannot be wiped is destroyed rather than passed on. Data wiping and secure data destruction covers how that works.
Clearing a room of them rather than one? IT asset disposal handles it as a single job.
Questions
Selling a Dell desktop, answered
I only know it says Dell on the front. Is that enough?
Where is the Service Tag on a desktop?
Is OptiPlex still a current range?
It will not turn on. Worth anything?
What about the monitor?
Get a free quote for your Dell
The model if you have it, the shape if you do not, and roughly how old it is. We will come back with a figure and there is no obligation to accept it.