Dell OptiPlex 7760 AIO

Dell OptiPlex 7760

The Dell OptiPlex 7760 AIO is a business grade all-in-one PC with a huge range of configurations and prices. What else do you expect from Dell?

We use the term business grade because these need to be made well enough to stand up to a five-year lease cycle – the Dell OptiPlex 7760 AIO will do that with ease. And Dell tends to use Intel reference designs – excellent for long term driver and firmware updates.

But consumers may like that reliability as well. And if not, Dell has Inspiron 24-inch 5000 and 27-inch 7000 All-in-Ones that are pretty good as well.

Why an AIO?

  • Takes up far less desk space
  • Nice aesthetics – it looks good
  • Great for apartment dwellers – no cable clutter.

Why not?

  • Limited expansion options – two memory and one M.2 and 2.5

Review: Dell OptiPlex 7760 AIO

Website here

There is a veritable smorgasbord of specifications so we will cover the range. Our tests unit was a 27-inch, 1K, touch screen and 8/128GB RAM and an Intel i5-8400 Core Processor.

  • 8th gen Intel Core i3-8300, i5-8400, i5-8500, i5-8600 i7-7700
  • 4/8/16/32GB DDR4 2666Mhz (2 memory slots)
  • SATA 6 500GB/5400 to 1TB 7200 (one bay)
  • M.2 2280 PCIe NVME 128/256 class 35 or 40 (one slot only – should support 1/2TB SSD)
  • 27” HD non-touch and touch and 4K non-touch
  • Dell entry level keyboard KB216 and MS116 black mouse
  • Three years onsite with options to 5 years
  • Win Pro

PC UserBench reports the most common configuration tested is 80% i-7-8700, 16/256GB but that reflects a small proportion of the tens of thousands sold to enterprise. We suspect the sweet spot is i5, 8GB and 128GB SSD.

Base price is from $2038.99 to $2829 plus options

New 9th gen 7770 (essentially the same) – website here

i5-9500, i7-9700, i9-9900 with a base price from $2695 to $3989 plus options.

Unboxing

It comes in a largish TV style box with the quick remove clips and base making it very easy to unpack. You get the unit, a power cable; standard Dell cabled keyboard and optical mouse.

Enterprise users will doubtlessly have some automated roll-out and management procedure. Consumers get the usual Windows 10 setup.

Dell Commander will then update (and keep up to date) the system patches. Windows will update to the latest patches as well.

User Manual here

Service manual here.

Stand

This unit came with an articulating stand that tilts from upright to angled to flat – it’s an interesting stand perfect for touch screen operation. However, it is wider and takes up more desk space so the height adjustable, pivot stand may be a better option.

RAM/Storage

Dell OptiPlex 7760

It uses faster DDR4 RAM and has two slots. If you get the option order a single 8 or 16GB memory stick so you can add more later. For office or home use, 16GB is nice although you can get away with 8GB.

The test unit has an SK Hynix 128GB class 35 SSD that gave a respectable 1599/325 Mbps sequential read/write speed.

If you want more speed – about 3000/3000Mbps then you need to pay for a class 40 SSD.

Dell OptiPlex 7760

Or it is Intel Optane compatible – use the M.2 for Intel Optane and fit a larger HDD or fit an Intel Series 7 SSD. I am sure Dell can offer those options.

Processor

I am not going to comment on processors – the i-5 and i7 are both screamers and will do everything you need within the limitations of the embedded Intel UHD 630 graphics chip.

We ran the processor flat out for ten minutes. It did not throttle at all (good), but the CPU temperature went from 38° to 80° and fan noise from 33dB to 45dB. Yes, that is an extreme test but be aware that an AIO sits right in front of you so you will hear the fan under load. But then this is an office productivity PC – not a battleship.

Comms

It uses the Intel 9560 WLAN card with Wi-Fi AC, dual-band 2 x 2 MU-MIMO and BT 5.0.

With the right router (HT aggregation) it can achieve 1.73Gbps half-duplex. In our tests at 2m from a D-Link AC5300, we got rock solid 866Mbps.

The Intel 9560 is for business environments with lots of Wi-Fi users.

Ports

  • USB 3.1 Type C Gen 2 (side) 10Gbps
  • USB 3.1 Type A Gen 1 with PowerShare (side) 5Gbps
  • 4 USB 3.1 Type A Gen 1 (rear)
  • SD Slot (Side)
  • DisplayPort 1.2 Out (rear) supports 4K@24Hz
  • Universal Audio Jack (side)
  • Audio Line Out (rear)
  • RJ-45 (rear)
  • Power Connection (rear)

HDMI 2.0 out is available to order.

Dell OptiPlex 7760

Having a USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 on the side is convenient for connecting USB-C devices and downstream charging. In theory, you could attach a USB-C hub to this port and add a lot more peripherals.

Dell OptiPlex 7760

It has both DisplayPort and HDMI out to connect up to two external 4K monitors.

Display

You have the option of 1K and 4K non-touch, and 1K touch.

The review model has a 27-inch, WLED, 1k (1980 x 1020), 82ppi, touch, glare-free IPS display. It has small side and top bezels to suit a dual display. The screen has a 40mm wide honeycomb speaker bar along the bottom – it looks good.

But at 200 nits brightness with a contrast 1000:1 (typical) this screen is OK under 400-500 nit office lighting but not bright enough for 600-1000 nits daylight.

Colour accuracy (Delta e) was 2.2 and 86% sRGB. Perfect for general office productivity users but not for designers or creatives that need a higher colour gamut.

It is called glare-free, and that is accurate under diffused office lighting.

The touch was a great feature – envied by my fellow workers. But it makes the articulating stand a necessity. It is capacitive, meaning it supports finger use but not a stylus and Windows Ink (no digitiser).

Audio

It has dual front-firing speakers x 3W each. Maximum volume was 78dB, which is good for the average bedroom size. It exhibits little harmonic distortion at that level.

  • Deep Bass: 20-40Hz – none
  • Middle Bass: 40-100Hz – none
  • High Bass: 100 to 200Hz – building up
  • Low-mids: 200-400Hz – flat (good)
  • Mids: 400-1000Hz – flat (good)
  • High-mids: 1-2kHz – flat (good)
  • Low-treble: 2-4kHz – flat (good)
  • Treble:4-6kHz – flat (good)
  • High Treble: 6-10kHz – declining
  • Dog whistle: 10-20kHz – falls off from about 12kHz

This is mid-centric verging on bright vocal – good for clear voice and teleconferences but a fair way from being suitable for movies and music.

Dell OptiPlex 7760

MaxAudio Pro Waves software offers several pre-sets and an equaliser that gives +/- 6dB control. With a bit of tweaking, we managed to get the sound on the sweet side of mid-centric.

Dell claims it can do 24-bit/192kHz audio, but Windows would only support 24-bit/48kHz. It runs BT 5.0 with the standard SBC codec.

Pop-up webcam

It is an option and can be either Windows Hello IR capable or just a 2MP camera. The review unit had the Window Hello, and it was fast and accurate. It has a 74.9° FOV which is fine for two to three people in a video conference.

Dell OptiPlex 7760

It will do video to 1080@30fps.

Keyboard and Mouse

It has the standard Dell cables keyboard and mouse. These are adequate but not meant for productivity.

The 15mm keys have a 2mm throw (good) and a 55g actuation (heavy). But his is a membrane keyboard and offers no feedback.

The optical red laser mouse is fine but requires a mouse pad.

GadgetGuy’s take – Dell OptiPlex 7760 AIO is excellent for business

I have never been fond of AIO’s, but Dell’s Inspiron 7000 (review here) made me a convert. And perhaps that is because today I want more Zen – a simpler life.

Dell AIOs are Zen – boring, solid, reliable and fixable. Plug it in, and it works and works.

My only complaint is the screen could be brighter, but I work in a very bright environment – it won’t be an issue in an office.

The target market is business/enterprise and particularly second monitor users so consumers should look at the Inspiron series.

Features
Value for money
Performance
Ease of Use
Design
Reader Rating1 Vote
A great All-in-one design
Dell quality and reliability
Supports external 4K monitors
Screen could have been brighter - fine for office use
4.6