Dell Inspiron 3030 Small Desktop - Intel Core i5-14400 Processor, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB SSD, Intel UHD 730 Graphics, Windows 11 Home, Onsite & Migrate Service - Mist Blue

This is my second Dell Inspiron. My first has an i7-7700 processor which is not supported by Windows 11. Plus, I've had it for 7 years, so it was getting long in the tooth anyway. I upgraded to this Inspiron 3030 with an i7-14700 processor and Win 11 Pro. I intentionally decided to go with the single, 1TB SSD because I wanted to move the 250 GB SSD and 1TB HD from my older machine to this newer one. The Inspiron started well and, after the normal Dell/Windows initialization routine, it ran properly; no muss, no fuss. I then began to move components over from my old Inspiron to this new one.Before I started, I read the user's manual to familiarize myself with the contents of the case. Opening the case is actually quite simple; two thumbscrews and you're in. (No screwdriver required.) Adding a 7-port USB 3.0 PCIe card was as simple as pulling on a tab, inserting the card, and closing the tab. (Again, no screws involved.) As for adding my older hard drives, inside the 3030's case is a power harness for three additional SATA drives/cards, and a spare SATA data cable. Moving my 250GB SSD and 1TB HD (both AHCI) from my old machine to the new machine was easy; just unscrew the drive caddy from the old machine and screw it onto the case of the new machine, plug in the power cables and the SATA cables, close the case, and reboot. Bingo! The drives were present and accounted for. (The old drives needed different drive letters assigned (per my desires), and the old SSD (which was the old OS disk with Win 10 Home installed) had to be reconfigured and reformatted to a Data disk, but that was easily done via Disk Management.)Now, many people have said that you have to change the Inspiron 3030's BIOS setting from the default "RAID" to "AHCI" when installing AHCI drives. However, this is not the case; at least for this particular model. After much review and research (read the owners manual!), I realized that there was no need to change the new Dell's BIOS storage setting to "AHCI" from the default "RAID" setting. (The Inspiron 3030's "RAID" setting actually does NOT have a true RAID function and thus does not have to reformat the drives when an additional drive is added.) In the event, I just plugged in the new drives, rebooted, and they were recognized without any problem. Of course, I had backed up everything and had a Recovery Disk handy if anything went sideways.So, long story short, I am satisfied with this machine (I'm writing this review using it). It is already much faster than my old machine, which saves me lots of time when processing and moving large files. Good product, good price. 5 stars.

The computer runs smoothly and quiet. The 14 gen I5 processor runs circles around my older gen 4 I7 processor. The plug is very secure, even though I've seen complaints of loose cords on the back of computer. Love the boot up speed. I made one mod, I installed 32 GB ram into it since I do some graphics. For a month I had absolutely no issues with it. I would recommend this computer. 3030S 16GB Ram, i5 Gen 14 processor , 1 TB solid state hard drive, NO CD drive ( can install or use an external USB if needed.)

Replaces an ancient HP desktop that was hot stuff back in the day. This Dell loads about 20 times faster, what with the SSD instead of an HD. It has a DVD drive, which is increasingly rare, and I have a lot of old pictures and whatnot on discs that I'm only slowly getting around to. Price is reasonable, it has a full slate of ports, runs quietly, doesn't take up much space.Dell's OEM keyboard is about standard for this sort of thing; I prefer a mechanical board and will replace that. Everything else is fine. I'm not a heavy-duty gamer and I don't do a lot of photoshop, so this machine fills all my needs just fine. I'd recommend it as being a good, basic desktop. Longevity? We'll see.Aside from having some icons rearranged, I don't see a lot of difference between Windows 10 and 11. Either does everything I need. Actually, XP did everything I needed, and generally faster. You can't stop "progress", I guess, but I wouldn't at all mind a stripped-down Windows that omitted all the A.I. copilot stuff and a ton of other never-used features. That's what I like about my tablet's Chrome system. Sleek, fast, lightweight.You're looking for a medium fast desktop with 16 GB memory, a 1 TB drive and a DVD tray, this Dell should suit you well enough.

I'm liking this computer. I needed a new one because my other one was basically obsolete & it was running pretty slowly. I got most of my software installed easily on this computer. I just had a few issues with setting up the log in screen so I can skip that when turning on the PC. I had to install a couple of programs twice and one program won't work with it anymore but that's not the pc's fault. I've had this computer about a month or so and I'm enjoying how fast it loads up and turns off and also how quickly it updates. All in all, I'm happy with the computer; hopefully it remains that way.I can open over 10 Chrome browser tabs without slowing the PC down at all which, my previous dell couldn't even have 4 or 5 open at once without it getting sluggish. I do wish it had a DVD drive; I mean it has the slot for it, just nothing is installed in there so that's rather pointless. It runs quietly and like I said, the memory seems to be quite good for what I need. For reference, I'm an artist so I do a lot of artwork on my PC, graphic designing and some web designing so it's great for that. I can't speak on how it is for gaming because I don't play video games.

I purchased the i7 with the 1 TB SSD with Windows 11 Pro on November 22, 2024. Mine came with an optical drive. The pc was easy to set up, worked great, perfect for my basic needs, fast, etc. I kept the AV up to date, as well as all the windows 11 updates. But for no reason it stopped working. It'd turn on but wouldn't boot up. It was past Amazon's return window, but might get help from Dell if it's still under warranty? All my many former pcs I kept running 15-20 years. The only reason I had to give them up was because Windows latest versions would not be supported. This is the first desktop (and/or laptop) that died on me in just 4 months. It's also my first Dell. So disappointed and frustrated, to say the least.