Dell Optiplex 7010 Business Desktop Computer (Intel Quad Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, 2TB HDD, USB 3.0, DVDRW, Windows 10 Professional) (Renewed)

First, I suspect, since there are a number of ‘Certified Refurbished’ brokers offering these machines, that the add for these machines is rather generic and somewhat fluid. It may be worth taking the time before ordering to check with the specific vendor to verify system specs.

The item I ordered was from Blair Technology Group. It is a Dell Optiplex 7010 in a desktop enclosure, not a small form factor machine – but that’s OK for my purposes. It came with 16 GB of RAM, a 2 TB hard drive, and an Intel i5 – 3470 quad core CPU. Windows 10 was pre-installed on the hard drive. A USB connected keyboard and mouse were included in the shipment, they will gather dust in the closet.

After opening the box I opened the unit to verify components, then zipped everything back up and plugged in an old 1280 x 1024 HP monitor via the VGA port. The machine came up on Win 10 quickly without any issues at all. After completing the personalization steps I checked various hardware components, in particular audio I/O. Everything worked. I shutdown the machine and then turned it back on, hit F12 to enter UEFI/BIOS mode and found the machine was set to ‘Legacy’ (BIOS mode) and non-secure boot. This configuration will work for most users – especially those that will bring up Win 10 for personal use and have no intention of doing any other major customization.

I installed a GeForce GTX 710 card in the half height card slots (there are four in the desktop unlike the two in the SFF 7010). Connected both monitors, set the system to use UEFI and configured the boot devices to see an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS iso image on a USB drive. Installed Ubuntu 16.04 LTS on a spare 300 GB drive I had (pulling the 2 TB drive out of the machine – since it uses an MBR to boot it is kinda lost in the UEFI environment, it will be reused eventually).

This thing runs cleanly on Ubuntu 16.04 with a handful of USB hard drives connected and the video card installed. The memory is the biggest bonus since I run a photo editing tool written in Javascript (big memory hog). All in all I’m pleased. Easy to use right out of the box – easy to customize.

Before I begin this review, a little disclaimer: I own my own IT company and have well over 25 years of computer related experience. I am also a Dell, Lenovo and HP reseller.

Now, onto the review.

For this machine (Dell 7010), I will begin by saying these are very good machines. Originally came with Windows 7 Pro as they are workstations. They have upgraded (apparently by the seller) to Windows 10 Pro, a larger 2 TB hard drive and as stated, 16GB DDR3 memory. All seems good right? Wrong!

First off. I don’t know if the seller is a licensed and certified Microsoft refurbisher. My first guess is no. On the description sheet that comes with it, it is stated that the COA (Certificate of Authenticity) is on the outside of the unit. In fact, it is non-existent. As a certified Microsoft refurbisher, this is mandatory.

Secondly, the memory. While it says 16GB, and you do get 16GB, it just doesn’t work. There are 4 dimm slots for memory in these machines and 3 are in use. 2 have 2 sticks of 4GB and 1 has 1 stick of 8GB. Well, this setup will not work and will not POST the machine – no video. The reason is is that these machines will not work with 3 DIMM slots in use as it is considered dual channel mode and must have all DIMM slots filled (if using more than 2 memory sticks) to work properly.

Also, with the memory and the 3 sticks included. All 3 were of different brands. I had a Hynix, Crucial and one that had no brand at all. And on top of that, the 8GB stick didn’t even work. It was dead. So in that regards, the seller owes me either 1 8GB stick or two 4GB sticks.

Thirdly, the cosmetics. On the exterior I would give it a grade B, and thats being generous. It was packaged well so credit for that. But on the interior, it was disgusting. For one, to an untrained eye, you would not notice the loose screw that was rattling around and could have caused a dead short. The amount of dust was abundant but no match for the shop vac.

All in all, the computer does work… now, since I fixed it.

As for installed software that is not needed was VLC player, Java 8, CCleaner and Open Office. While some may appreciate that, it’s best left up to the buyer to install those if they wanted to.

As for installed software that never came with the unit when it was new, or should have NEVER been installed was 2 things. Mind you, this has a CPU with on-board graphics, so there was no reason to have BOTH AMD and NVidia graphics drivers installed.

As far as value, in my opinion, this unit was no where near worth the $240. On a good day, may half that. I purchased for a business client and thought that for the price, it would be worth it. But in the end, I feel I got burned.

As a final note, in my unit, it would not keep the bios settings nor the date and time. Only after finding out the CMoS battery was dead, I replaced it with a new one and that solved that issue.

If the seller would like to have a professional one on one discussion about this, I would be happy to do so. However on the basis outlined above, it is my recommendation that if you’re looking for a refurb unit, look elsewhere.

Llegó en buen estado. Es buena máquina.

j’ai été satisfaite jusqu’à ce que mon ordinateur ai eu un problème avec windows et que j’ai du téléphoné a dell pour réparer mon ordi car je n’avais plus rien du tout. eu très bon service avec dell

Bought three for our businesses…for roughly under the cost of 1 new comparable machine. POSITIVE: They all started fine, run FAST, and so far are working perfectly. They have LOTS of USBs on the front and back, and as the specs show 16 GB of RAM and 2 TB hard drive. Big upgrade from the computers we’re replacing. Thrilled with all of that. Negative: The keyboard and mouse that came with them were flimsy, but those are easy to replace if you don’t have a quality keyboard and mouse on hand. Also, the specs say these computers come loaded with Windows 7 Pro, but actually came loaded with Win 10 Pro. They’re down-gradable to Win 7 Pro, but we chose to use them with Win 10 Pro. No problem activating with the new Windows Key stickers on the cases. Only “extra” software on it was Libre Office (FREE opensource version of MS Office), which works fine. So far we’re extremely pleased with these computers.

I just bought this in October and my return window closed on January 29th. I had the blue screen on two occasions but I’m fairly adept at resolving that issue. Today, I could not. I run an accounting business from my home and this is drastic. I’m beyond sad.

The DVD unit didn’t work. I send it back and they have it for few days. Again the unit was the same, didn’t work. Then I have to ask for refund and I have to pay 35 dollars to send it back. That is not fair considering that it never works.