Dell OptiPlex KKD12 2019, Core i5-7500, 8GB, 256GB SSD, Black

A 2017 office PC wearing a refurbished price tag. Fine for email, useless for everything else.

The i5-7500 sits in the 11th percentile for CPUs in our database, which is a polite way of saying it's old. The 8GB of DDR4 RAM is even worse at the 3rd percentile. But here's the surprise: the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 ranks in the 97th percentile for GPUs. That sounds impressive until you realize it's being compared against other integrated graphics in office PCs, not actual gaming cards. The 256GB SSD is snappy for boot times, but it's small. You'll soon be juggling files to free up space.

Stack this against the Lenovo ThinkCentre M70q Gen 5 or the ASUS NUC 14 Pro and the OptiPlex looks ancient. Those mini PCs sip power, take up less space, and come with modern CPUs that embarrass the i5-7500. The Apple Mac mini M4 is in a completely different league, but it also costs more. The Minisforum UM760 Slim gives you way more performance per dollar if you don't need Windows 10 Pro specifically. The HP OmniDesk M02-0234 is the closest competitor, and honestly, it's a coin flip between two aging office boxes.

Pricing is all over the map. In Canada, you'll see listings from CAD 324 to CAD 1,177, which is a wild spread for the same box. The CAD 324 listing is the only one worth considering, and even then, you're buying old tech. At CAD 1,177, you're getting robbed. The USD 434 listing is also a tough sell when a modern mini PC with better specs costs about the same.

The Dell OptiPlex KKD12 is a refurbished office workhorse that's been put out to pasture and then brought back for one more shift. The one thing to know? It's a cheap way to get a legitimate Windows 10 Pro machine with a DVD writer, but the specs are straight out of 2017. That Core i5-7500 and 8GB of RAM will handle email and spreadsheets fine, but don't expect much else.

If you're looking for a machine that'll still feel decent in three years, this isn't it. Go get a Minisforum UM760 Slim or an ASUS NUC 14 Pro instead. You'll get modern performance, better efficiency, and actual upgrade paths for not much more money.

Only buy this if you need a dirt-cheap Windows 10 Pro machine for basic office work and you find it at the low end of that CAD price range. Otherwise, spend your money on a modern mini PC. This thing is a stopgap, not a long-term solution.