Dell Inspiron 3250 vs. Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower
Comparison and Differences
Differences between Dell Inspiron 3250 and Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower
If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell Inspiron 3250 which was released in 2016. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower is older and entered production in 2015.
If you are looking for the smaller form factor the Dell Inspiron 3250 is the right one for you. It is smaller than the Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower and will fit more easily under your desk.
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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower has 4 RAM slots while the Dell Inspiron 3250 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower is using the faster 2133 MT/s RAM. The Dell Inspiron 3250 is slower by supporting RAM speeds of up to 1600 MT/s. Additionally, if you will be needing a lot of RAM, better go for the Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower as it has the ability to run 64 GB of RAM. The Dell Inspiron 3250 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower has 8 USB ports. The Dell Inspiron 3250 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower has a DisplayPort. The Dell Inspiron 3250 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 Inspiron 3250 comes with an HDMI port, while the Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 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 slots are located on the motherboard and it is where SSD, HDD and Optical Disk Drives are connected. Each of the two models being compared have 3 SATA slot(s). Keep in mind that having too few SATA slots might limit your options for connecting additional memory drives.
M.2 SSD interface allows you to transfer data with higher speeds compared to the old SATA interface. Unfortunately, neither the Dell Inspiron 3250, nor the Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower 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
Having a Power Supply Unit with high power rating is important, if you are going to use components which require extra power. The Dell Inspiron 3250 comes with a decent 180 Watt PSU, but the Lenovo ThinkCentre M800 Tower has a more powerful one rated at 250 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
