Dell Vostro 460 vs. Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower

Differences between Dell Vostro 460 and Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower

Both computers, the Dell Vostro 460 and the Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower, were released during the same year - 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower as it is running a newer generation CPU. This is not to say that Dell Vostro 460 is bad - it can still run some powerful CPUs, albeit being an older generation.

Memory

Both models have have equal amount of ram slots (4 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower is using the faster 1600 MT/s RAM. The Dell Vostro 460 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower as it has the ability to run 32 GB of RAM. The Dell Vostro 460 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 M92 Tower has 8 USB ports. The Dell Vostro 460 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 M92 Tower has a DisplayPort. The Dell Vostro 460 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 Vostro 460 comes with an HDMI port, while the Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 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 4 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 Vostro 460, nor the Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 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 Lenovo ThinkCentre M92 Tower comes with a decent 280 Watt PSU, but the Dell Vostro 460 has a more powerful one rated at 350 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