Dell Tower Plus Review: A Hybrid Work and Gaming Desktop

I really like the I/O on the entrance panel. You get three USB-A ports (5 Gbps), in addition to a 10-Gbps USB-C port. The inclusion of a headphone jack and an SD card slot can be tremendous handy. On the again, you’ll discover your regular assortment of ports, together with yet another USB-C port. That ought to cowl all of the bases, relying on what peripherals and equipment you utilize.

In addition to the video ports on the again of the GPU, you are getting upgraded port choice within the rear of the PC. For variations of the PC with out discrete graphics, you now get HDMI 2.0 and a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 port, which helps you to join as much as two 4K shows. You even have the same old assortment of 4 USB-A ports, an Ethernet jack, stereo audio ports, and a Kensington lock.

The Dell Tower Plus doesn’t precisely use off-the-shelf elements, but it surely does offer you pretty good upgradability, which is likely one of the fundamental causes for purchasing a desktop within the first place. As for additional enlargement, there are two overhead empty storage bays for 3.5-inch SATA exhausting drives, in addition to an additional M.2 for an extra SSD. There are two DIMM slots, which is able to mean you can pack as much as 64 GB of DDR5 reminiscence, in case your coronary heart so needs. My evaluation unit got here with two sticks of DDR5 RAM, 16 GB every, in addition to a single-terabyte M.2 SSD.

Adding or changing these parts is pretty easy, and there are even some directions printed on the within of the facet panel. No, it’s not the Framework Desktop by way of ease of use, however there’s much more house in your fingers when tinkering with parts or troubleshooting one thing. This isn’t a system inherently made for true DIYers. The customized motherboard makes upgrading the motherboard or CPU harder, however for the fundamentals, Dell has accomplished an excellent job of providing you with a basis you’ll be able to construct on.

Performance for Pros

Photograph: Luke Larsen

My evaluation unit is likely one of the extra highly effective configurations, with each the unlocked Intel Core Ultra 7 265K and RTX 5070. (You can improve to the Core Ultra 9 285K and RTX 5080.) The worth for this desktop drops as you progress down the configurations. The most cost-effective is $800 for Intel graphics, but it surely doesn’t make a lot sense to purchase that when you may get a Dell 14 Plus laptop computer with higher specs for much less cash, particularly given the additional benefit of the show and portability.