Dell Inspiron 3881 vs. Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Dell Inspiron 3881 and Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower which was released in 2021. The Dell Inspiron 3881 is older and entered production in 2020.
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 10 generation of Intel Processors have enough power to execute all of the home and office tasks that most people will care to do.
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 Inspiron 3881 is using the faster 2933 MT/s RAM. The Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 2666 MT/s. In addition, you will be able to install the same amount of RAM in both models, and most probably 64 GB of RAM will be enough for most people. However, if you will be needing more RAM, make sure to check other desktop models too.
Ports
Both models have the same amount of USB ports for total count of 8. If this is not enough, using a USB hub is always a viable option. What is nice about the Dell Inspiron 3881, is that it has 1 USB 3.1 port(s) which allows transfer of up to 10Gb/s. Unfortunately, the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower 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.
DisplayPort is crucial for any desktop machine. It is good to see that both models are featuring DisplayPorts. However, the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower comes with 2 ports, while the Dell Inspiron 3881 has only 1. If you are planning to use multiple monitors, the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower is the better choice.
The Dell Inspiron 3881 comes with an HDMI port, while the Dell OptiPlex 3090 Tower does not support the interface. Of course missing HDMI port is something that can be easily fixed with a good adapter (e.g. DisplayPort to HDMI).
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 OptiPlex 3090 Tower is better equipped as it comes with 3 SATA slot(s), while the Dell Inspiron 3881 has 2 slot(s).
When your goal is to have the fastest SSD transfer speeds, an M.2 interface is crucial. Thus, it is good that both models have M.2 SSD slots. Today M.2 SSDs are not much more expensive than the average SATA drives, so it really does not make sense to invest in SATA drives anymore.
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 260 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
