Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT vs. Dell OptiPlex 990 DT
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT and Dell OptiPlex 990 DT
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT which was released in 2012. The Dell OptiPlex 990 DT is older and entered production in 2011.
Both models have the same form factor, meaning reoughtly they have the same phiysical size and form.
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 OptiPlex 3010 DT as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that Dell OptiPlex 990 DT is bad - it can still run some powerful CPUs, albeit being an older generation.
Memory
The Dell OptiPlex 990 DT has 4 RAM slots while the Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT 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 OptiPlex 3010 DT is using the faster 1600 MT/s RAM. The Dell OptiPlex 990 DT is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 1333 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Dell OptiPlex 990 DT as it has the ability to run 16 GB of RAM. The Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT can do a bit less at max 8 GB. Most of the times, this should be sufficient for the majority of users.
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. 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 990 DT has a DisplayPort. The Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT does not have one? Don't worry though, nowadays video adapters are cheap and you can get almost any combination of conversion types.
The Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT comes with an HDMI port, while the Dell OptiPlex 990 DT 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 3010 DT is better equipped as it comes with 4 SATA slot(s), while the Dell OptiPlex 990 DT has 3 slot(s).
M.2 SSD interface allows you to transfer data with higher speeds compared to the old SATA interface. Unfortunately, neither the Dell OptiPlex 3010 DT, nor the Dell OptiPlex 990 DT has one. However, you can still use a SATA SSD drive which should give you satisfactory performance.
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 250 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
