Acer Veriton N4660g vs. Dell Vostro 3681
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Acer Veriton N4660g and Dell Vostro 3681
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell Vostro 3681 which was released in 2020. The Acer Veriton N4660g is older and entered production in 2018.
If you are looking for the smaller form factor the Acer Veriton N4660g is the right one for you. It is smaller than the Dell Vostro 3681 and will fit more easily under your desk.
Processor
Usually the newer the generation of the CPU, the better the performance and efficiency is. If your budget allows it, you should go with the Dell Vostro 3681 as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that Acer Veriton N4660g is bad - it can still run some powerful CPUs, albeit being an older generation.
Memory
Both models have have equal amount of ram slots (2 RAM). Usually two RAM slots are more than enough for most cases. However, the count should be taken into account when planning how much and what combination of RAM you are going to need for your system.
The Dell Vostro 3681 is using the faster 2933 MT/s RAM. The Acer Veriton N4660g is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 2666 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Dell Vostro 3681 as it has the ability to run 64 GB of RAM. The Acer Veriton N4660g can do a bit less at max 32 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.
Ports
In total the Dell Vostro 3681 has 8 USB ports. The Acer Veriton N4660g is inferior in this regard and packs 7 USB ports. In any case, if you miss USB ports, you can always purchase a USB hub. What is nice about the Acer Veriton N4660g, is that it has 2 USB 3.1 port(s) which allows transfer of up to 10Gb/s. Unfortunately, the Dell Vostro 3681 has no such port, thus restricting your transfer speeds significantly. For people who want to use external drives on regular basis, this might be an issue.
Unfortunately, only the Acer Veriton N4660g has a DisplayPort. The Dell Vostro 3681 does not have one? Don't worry though, nowadays video adapters are cheap and you can get almost any combination of conversion types.
In case your monitor supports HDMI only, you will be happy to hear that both models come with an HDMI port.
SATA ports are placed on the system board and it is where you connect your HDD, SSD and Optical Disk Drives. More SATA slots will allow you to have more drives running at the same time. In this regard the Dell Vostro 3681 is better equipped as it comes with 2 SATA slot(s), while the Acer Veriton N4660g has 1 slot(s).
An M.2 SSD can be several times faster than a SATA one. Thus, we are happy to see that both models support the M.2 interface. However, the Acer Veriton N4660g has 1 M.2 slots while the Dell Vostro 3681 comes with just 1.
Make sure that the available M.2 slot supports the PCIe (also called NVMe) interface. This is important as there are M.2 slots which support only the inferior SATA III interface. For comparison, the SATA III interface has max speeds of 6Gb/s, while the PCIe 3.0 x4 will support speeds up to 32Gb/s!
Power Supply
Having a Power Supply Unit with high power rating is important, if you are going to use components which require extra power. The Acer Veriton N4660g comes with a decent 135 Watt PSU, but the Dell Vostro 3681 has a more powerful one rated at 200 Watts. Choosing either one depends on your specific requirements and use case. Also don't forget that some models might have more than one PSU option - try to always get the most powerful one, especially if you plan to upgrade to a powerful GPU.
Motherboard
