Dell's OptiPlex 7070 Ultra is a modular all-in-one desktop PC inside a monitor stand

[Shawn Knight]

The big picture: Modular PCs and gadgets afford multiple benefits on paper but successful real-world implementations are few and far between. Their proprietary nature means that unless they find a substantial following in the market, they don’t justify the cost to manufacture. As such, companies usually discontinue their efforts once it becomes apparent that it’s a money-losing proposition (and many never even get off the ground).

Dell on Tuesday introduced the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra, a modular all-in-one desktop designed to be contained within a monitor stand.

Described as a zero-footprint desktop, the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra allows customers to swap out, service or upgrade components independently of the display. It can be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor, 64GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD and can support as many as three monitors at once for increased productivity.

Multiple publications were able to get some hands-on time with the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra and more than one described the mechanism as finicky or quirky although once you get the hang of it, it does work reliably. The entire compute module sits inside a housing in the monitor stand and can be removed for replacement or upgrading purposes. It’s a lot like a laptop but with more flexibility in terms of cooling and not needing a battery.

I do wish Dell had placed the cable pass-through higher up on the stand. As-is, the cables are visible when viewed head-on and that isn’t a great aesthetic.

(Image courtesy Liliputing)

The Dell OptiPlex 7070 Ultra launches on September 24 with an average starting price of around $749.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/81527-dell-optiplex-7070-ultra-modular-all-one-desktop.html

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Interesting... though still seems to be rather specific. Is Dell going to manufacture and sell new stands for all their recent monitors? A lot of customers will upgrade their computers routinely but hold onto monitors until they die. And is Dell going to continue making all their monitors with this modular computer compartment or just some select ones?

 

[Lew Zealand]

The physical connections between Dell Ultrasharp monitors and their stands have been standardized for over a decade, so it should be easy to replace any recent 24", 27", etc. Ultrasharp's stand with one of these and it'll take about 10 seconds to switch.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Interesting... though still seems to be rather specific. Is Dell going to manufacture and sell new stands for all their recent monitors? A lot of customers will upgrade their computers routinely but hold onto monitors until they die. And is Dell going to continue making all their monitors with this modular computer compartment or just some select ones?

This is exactly what dell does. We are replacing roughly 10K desktops at work with 3060 micros, and all of our monitors, from 17', 19', widescreen, 16:10, ece all fit the new stand dell makes that the 3060 fits into.

They are really good about cross generation compatibility this way. Likely any institution that wants this will buy new stands for their current monitors to go with the machines. I'm curious if any of these modules will be made with AMD APUs or with dedicated GPUs for more graphically intensive work that just wont run on a intel 630.

 

[Lew Zealand]

25W max so no dedicated GPU option but there are 15-25W mobile AMD APUs with up to a Vega 10 in them (Ryzen 3700U). And that's only 12nm Zen+ at this point. Next year should bring us 7nm Zen2 APUs with more performance and hopefully a higher core count iGPU as well. I doubt we'll see those options from Dell, though.

 

[MikitaM]

Perfect for Ryzen 3700U, which covers 99% demands, even some light gaming.

 

[madboyv1]

Ooh, me likey this implementation concept, and the fact that someone actually did it.

 

[Uncle Al]

Never had one or used one. Are the Dell products upgradeable, at least as far as memory or CPU's? I kind of like the idea of them for minimal operations but without some significant storage, etc. it seems to me they really are just a step above the old traditional "dumb terminal" from the 70's

 

[Gars]

Now, that's a stand worth $900

 

[Lew Zealand]

Never had one or used one. Are the Dell products upgradeable, at least as far as memory or CPU's? I kind of like the idea of them for minimal operations but without some significant storage, etc. it seems to me they really are just a step above the old traditional "dumb terminal" from the 70's

This product is brand new so who knows about that? But I have a smattering of Dell Optiplexes and Latitudes and all have upgradeable memory and storage. I haven't looked specifically to see if the desktop CPUs are socketed but some of their Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge *laptops* had socketed CPUs, which is a pretty nice option. I have one here in the office.

 

[Lew Zealand]

OK I opened it and looked. This Dell Optiplex 9020 USFF (Haswell-gen) has a socketed CPU (i5-4590S in this one). I have an Optiplex 7060 MFF in the office but can't open it right now. I'll see if I can do that this afternoon.

 

[madboyv1]

Never had one or used one. Are the Dell products upgradeable, at least as far as memory or CPU's? I kind of like the idea of them for minimal operations but without some significant storage, etc. it seems to me they really are just a step above the old traditional "dumb terminal" from the 70's

This 7070 ultra specifically looks to be 1x m.2 2242, 1x 2.5", and 2x DDR-4 SO-DIMM, with the processor soldered to the board. The wifi module looks to be replaceable as well.

As far as other Dell desktops, I can say from experience that every form factor I've come across (all except MFF) in the last 10 years allow you to upgrade and replace just about anything in the case with nothing soldered on. The only difficult part is the power supply as "newer" systems do not use the standard 24pin+x ATX power harness for the motherboard so no off the shelf for that part. I'm curious to see if the MFF is socketed or not.

 

[retsxel]

I really like this design. I hope Dell does more with it! Very cool indeed.

 

[lazer]

Now if the stated price included the monitor as well as the computer, I would be first in line to get one....

 

[retsxel]

Now if the stated price included the monitor as well as the computer, I would be first in line to get one....

Maybe you should re-read the article. They call it an "All-In-One" for a reason..