Optiplex Aio 7400

[Bok Wykes]

Dells OptiPlex 7400 All-in-one is an all-around powerhouse that shoehorns the power of a tower into a monitor's form factor. Many people think that All-in-ones can only handle lighter workloads, but thanks to the 12th Gen Intel core processors, the OptiPlex 7400 is a true workhorse capable enough for power users.

Unboxing the All-in-One was incredibly simple. We merely opened the box, pulled the OptiPlex 7400 AIO out, attached the base, plugged the disc drive base into the back of the unit, and then plugged in the power supply.

While all-in-ones have their place, the most obvious benefit is not needing separate units for the monitor and the computer itself. Better yet, this computer has a camera built into the top of the display that retracts when not in use and, when needed, can be popped out (albeit manually). All in all, this all-in-one is ready to go out of the box. Thanks to its touch screen, we only needed to plug in a keyboard and mouse if we wanted to. Eventually, we added a keyboard for ease of typing and a mouse for a more traditional feel, but being able to operate the OptiPlex 7400 without peripherals was quite an interesting experience.

Another noteworthy feature of this computer is the disc drive built into the base. This does not come with all Dell OptiPlex 7400 AIO models, but ours did. For those needing a DVD+/-RW drive, having one integrated within the base of your all-in-one is incredibly handy.

Lastly, even with the stand that has the built-in disc drive, we immediately noticed how adjustable the monitor stand was. Looking at what else is available from Dell, other stand options feature a wider range of motion, yet we could still get the monitor to a comfortable position that allowed for touch, mouse, and keyboard input.

All around, the OptiPlex 7400 is quite sturdy and sleek, thanks to its aluminum chassis. It has built-in speakers that have decent sound quality for a computer. On the back, the all-in-one has a large range of I/O ports, including DisplayPort, HDMI, USB-A, USB-C, and Thunderbolt.

We appreciated the location of them too on this all-in-one. The ports in the back were high enough on the computer that when we had it tilted down, we weren't worried about needing to adjust for the cables sticking out of the back.

The 10-point touchscreen is responsive and easy to use, making a keyboard and mouse redundant for some workflows. The touchscreen has a 23.8-inch anti-glare and anti-smudge coating and up to a 4K resolution. If the screen is rotated to portrait orientation, the computer recognizes that it has been turned and automatically matches the display to the proper direction.

This all-in-one has a wide range of ports on the back and left side. There are multiple video outputs, several USB ports - including USB-C - and an ethernet port. Since this is an all-in-one, this computer also has an HDMI-IN, allowing the computer to become a display for a separate client.

Throughout our time using this all-in-one, we noticed it ran relatively quietly and stayed cool, even during benchmark testing. Though that is not to say it is designed to take on the most intensive tasks. It fared well in our tests; however, if you are looking for an incredibly powerful workstation, this is not your computer. But it is an excellent option if you need something for an office, meeting space or the like.

The Dell OptiPlex 7400 is an All-in-One workstation designed with AI personalization and 12-gen Intel core processors. This is the newest addition to the Dell series, known for its reliability, security features, and easy serviceability.

All-in-one desktops combine traditional PC tower and monitor into a compact device often used in office environments with lighter workloads. Typically, systems with this form factor often feature a space-saving, modern design. They are easy to use in conference rooms, classrooms, or areas where the traditional tower workstation might not be feasible to space constraints. The OptiPlex 7400 certainly fits this bill.

The OptiPlex 7400, unfortunately, supports only the PCIe Gen3 interface, a technology phasing out in PC builds. That said, those interested in workstations of this class likely do not have resource-intensive use cases and are just looking for an all-in-one device for general tasks, so Gen3 NVMe SSDs will do just fine here (in addition to driving down costs). For now, anyway.

Regarding GPUs, only one discrete graphics option is available, the AMD Radeon RX 6500M. Generally meant for mobile workstations, the RX 6500M is based on the RDNA architecture and is built on the 7nm process. It features a game clock speed of up to 2191 MHz, supports up to 4GB of GDDR6 memory, and can be used for some gaming and content creation, video editing, 3D rendering, and scientific modeling.

Continuing on from our series covering accessibility, first seen in our Dell Latitude 9430 review, we are looking at the Dell Optiplex 7400 AIO. Amanda Lojeski is heading up this section for our readers.

I had someone set it up for me since having limited dexterity makes it hard for me to do. Once the Optiplex 7400 AIO was all set up I found it very easy to turn on. Being a touchscreen all-in-one system the screen and computer are contained into one unit, with Dell giving a good range of motion to adjust the monitor for different uses.

For normal computer use with a keyboard and mouse the screen can sit in a vertical position, and for touch, it tilts back to be stabilized somewhat for finger presses. Coming from an accessibility standpoint being able to easily move the position of the screen up and down and side to side was amazing!

Dell included a wireless keyboard which worked well. I really like how big and easy the keys were to press. A couple of times I did have to reconnect the keyboard and the mouse but once I got it reconnected it worked well. I really like using the mouse also and the sensitivity of the mouse really impressed me.

Another accessibility standpoint that I really noticed while using the Optiplex 7400 AIO was how nice the Windows read-aloud feature was. When I have a lot to read online I have the computer read to me, the sound was clear and distinct making it easy to hear and understand. Having the words highlighted when reading out loud I found it very easy and enjoyed following along on the large screen. The sound quality of the onboard speakers was great with music as well.

Finishing up my accessibility review of the Dell Optiplex 7400 AIO, it was a nice blend of desktop features with touchscreen capabilities. The desktop size worked really well for me, without being too large or difficult to adjust. The touchscreen, mouse, and keyboard were very easy for me to operate using only my pointer finger. Being able to easily move the screen from different angles really impressed me and was accommodating. Clear sound quality and a nice screen display also proved to be a benefit when using the read-aloud feature. I hope my review helps individuals with physical limitations understand some of the features of this convertible desktop.

Moving on to functionality, the front of the 7400 features a retractable full HD webcam and camera status light, which pulls out quickly at the top of the display. The speakers are located positioned on either side of the bezel. The power button and dual array microphones are located under the display.

The remaining connectivity is located on the left side. From top to bottom is the SD 4.0 card slot, USB 3.2 Gen 22 Type-C port 3, and audio port. There is also a USB 3.2 Gen 1 port with PowerShare, a feature that allows charging USB devices even when the computer is in sleep mode or turned off (phones, tablets, or other USB devices).

This is certainly a conservative workstation build with 16GB of DDR4 RAM, PCIe Gen3 SSD, and an entry-level graphics card. However, as we mentioned above, the OptiPlex 7400 AIO is more than capable for those with light workload needs.

The SPECviewperf 2020 benchmark is the worldwide standard for measuring the graphics performance of professional applications running under the OpenGL and Direct X application programming interfaces. The view sets (or benchmarks) represent graphics content and behavior from actual applications without having to install the applications themselves. These viewsets include 3D Max, CATIA, Creo, Energy, Maya, Medical, Siemens NX, and Solidworks.

Moving on with our performance benchmarks, we ran SPECworkstation3. This is a test that specializes in benchmarks designed for testing all key aspects of workstation performance; it uses over 30 workloads to test CPU, graphics, I/O, and memory bandwidth. The workloads fall into broader categories such as Media and Entertainment, Financial Services, Product Development, Energy, Life Sciences, and General Operations. We are going to list the broad-category results for each, as opposed to the individual workloads. The results are an average of all the individual workloads in each category.

LuxMark is an OpenCL cross-platform benchmarking tool from those who maintain the open-source 3D rending engine, LuxRender. This tool looks at GPU performance in the areas of 3D modeling, lighting, and video work. For this review, we used the newest version, v4alpha0. In LuxMark, higher is better when it comes to the score. The OptiPlex 7400 showed a vastly superior Hall score; however, it trailed in the Food category.

Next up is the ubiquitous Blender, an open-source 3D modeling application. This benchmark was run using the Blender Benchmark utility (OptiX enabled). The scores are samples per minute, with higher being better. here, you can easily see the difference in performance between the AMD discrete card and the Iris Xe GPUs

The 7400 is the latest addition to the OptiPlex 7000 All-in-One series, which is known for its reliability, security features, and easy serviceability. Like all workstations of this form factor, the 7400 combines the traditional PC tower and monitor into a single, compact device, making it an ideal choice for office environments where space is at a premium. The all-in-one design also makes it easy to use in conference rooms, classrooms, or other areas where traditional tower workstations might not be feasible due to space constraints. Also noteworthy is its ultra-durable build, which allows it to be dropped into a commercial environment without worrying about physically breaking.

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