Dell Optiplex 990 Desktop PC Review
The Optiplex 990 is a standard sized minitower desktop, which means it has a decent amount of internal expansion space. It has the same sort of silver grey mesh motif that we've seen on other Optiplex systems like the Dell Optiplex 780 USFF ($1,484 direct, 4 stars). It's a modern look, and will fit into most cube farms without a problem. Getting into the case is as easy as lifting a lever—all the IT-serviceable components are tool-free. There's space for one more optical drive, two memory DIMMs, one PCI card, and one PCIe x16 card (electrically x4). The system's other install points are already filled. The Optiplex 990 has two 500GB hard drives linked in a RAID 1 (mirroring) array. This means that your PC is complete and stays functional, even if one of the hard drives physically fails. Hard drives all eventually fail, depending on use, and having a RAID 1 array is a way to make sure your critical tasks can't be stopped by hard drive failure.
