Dell Inspiron 3668 vs. Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Dell Inspiron 3668 and Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell Inspiron 3668 which was released in 2016. The Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT is older and entered production in 2015.
Both models have the same form factor, meaning reoughtly they have the same phiysical size and form.
Processor
The two models have the same generation of Intel processors. We think that the 6 generation of Intel Processors have enough power to execute all of the home and office tasks that most people will care to do.
Memory
The Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT has 4 RAM slots while the Dell Inspiron 3668 has only 2 slot(s). This is not something to worry about. Just make sure you take it into consideration when planning how much RAM you are going to use.
The Dell Inspiron 3668 is using the faster 2400 MT/s RAM. The Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 2133 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT as it has the ability to run 64 GB of RAM. The Dell Inspiron 3668 can do a bit less at max 16 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.
Ports
In total the Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT has 10 USB ports. The Dell Inspiron 3668 is inferior in this regard and packs 6 USB ports. In any case, if you miss USB ports, you can always purchase a USB hub. None of the desktop models has a USB 3.1 port (10Gb/s), so if you need a fast connection to your peripherals, like external Solid State Drive, you will need to look elsewhere.
Unfortunately, only the Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT has a DisplayPort. The Dell Inspiron 3668 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 Inspiron 3668 is better equipped as it comes with 5 SATA slot(s), while the Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT has 4 slot(s).
If you want the fastest transfer speeds for your SSD, an M.2 interface is crucial. Thus, if the M.2 SSD slot is a mandatory requirement for you, go with the Dell OptiPlex 7040 MT. Sadly, the Dell Inspiron 3668 has no such slot, and you will be forced to use the SATA interface instead.
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
Looking at the Power Supply Unit (PSU) of the two models we don't see any differences. For either of them you get a maximum power of 240 Watts. However be careful, many models have more than one power supply option. When buying your computer, it is a good idea to get a version with the most powerful PSU. This will potentially allow you to upgrade to a more powerful GPU for example.
Motherboard
