Dell OptiPlex 3080M vs. Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny

Differences between Dell OptiPlex 3080M and Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny

If you are looking for a more modern desktop, then you should go with the Dell OptiPlex 3080M which was released in 2020. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny 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

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 3080M as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny 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 OptiPlex 3080M is using the faster 2666 MT/s RAM. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny 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 3080M as it has the ability to run 64 GB of RAM. The Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny can do a bit less at max 32 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 6. 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.

DisplayPort is crucial for any desktop machine. It is good to see that both models are featuring DisplayPorts. However, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny comes with 2 ports, while the Dell OptiPlex 3080M has only 1. If you are planning to use multiple monitors, the Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny is the better choice.

The Dell OptiPlex 3080M comes with an HDMI port, while the Lenovo ThinkCentre M900 Tiny 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 1 SATA slot(s). Keep in mind that having too few SATA slots might limit your options for connecting additional memory drives.

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 65 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