
Dell
Dell T5820-W2104-P400-128GB-2.4TB Precision Xeon W-2104 128GB 2.4TB SSD Workstation (Renewed)
128GB DDR44TB SSD
128GB of ECC RAM and 2.4TB of SSD storage in a renewed Xeon workstation that punches well above its price point.
View price on Amazon
Affiliate Disclosure: Studio Supplies may earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this page, at no additional cost to you. This helps support our editorial team.
Notice a mistake? Let Us Know
Overview
Key Features
Dell Precision T5820
Intel Xeon W-2104 4 Core 3.2Ghz
128GB DDR4 RAM
Nvidia Quadro P400 2Gb
2.4TB (4x 480GB NEW SATA SSD)
Specifications
System
Dell Precision T5820
Processor
Intel Xeon W-2104, 4-Core, 3.2GHz
Memory
128GB DDR4 ECC RAM
Storage
2.4TB (4x 480GB NEW SATA SSD)
Graphics
NVIDIA Quadro P400 2GB GDDR5
Optical Drive
DVD
Power Supply
950W
Operating System
Windows 10
Condition
Renewed
Warranty
90 Days
Pros & Cons
👍 Pros
- 128GB ECC DDR4 provides massive headroom for memory-intensive workloads plus data integrity protection absent from consumer platforms.
- 2.4TB across four NEW SATA SSDs delivers broad storage capacity with no worn drive risk despite the renewed system chassis.
- Xeon W-2104 on the T5820 platform supports PCIe expansion, making GPU and storage upgrades straightforward without replacing the system.
- 950W PSU provides substantial headroom for adding higher-TDP Quadro or RTX cards without a power supply swap.
- Quadro P400 carries full ISV certification for major CAD and DCC applications out of the box.
👎 Cons
- The W-2104's 4-core, 4-thread design with no Hyper-Threading becomes a bottleneck in heavily threaded workloads like multi-core rendering or parallel compilation.
- SATA SSD storage, while new, cannot match the latency of NVMe; the T5820 supports M.2 NVMe via add-in cards but none is included.
- The Quadro P400's 2GB GDDR5 frame buffer is too small for GPU-accelerated rendering of complex scenes or ML model inference.
- Renewed chassis means the unit may show cosmetic wear; internal component condition beyond the SSDs is refurbisher-dependent.
- Windows 10 licensing on renewed hardware can present activation edge cases if the system board is ever replaced.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the Xeon W-2104 actually deliver compared to a standard desktop Core i7?
The W-2104 is a 4-core, 4-thread Skylake-W chip running at 3.2GHz with ECC memory support — the key differentiator being ECC. Consumer i7s don't support error-correcting memory, which means silent data corruption is possible under sustained workloads. For CAD, rendering, or financial applications, ECC is a meaningful reliability advantage, not a marketing checkbox.
Why does this ship with 128GB DDR4 when the W-2104 is a relatively modest CPU?
The T5820 platform supports up to 512GB of DDR4 ECC across eight DIMM slots, so 128GB here is a configuration choice, not a ceiling. This much RAM means you can load massive datasets, run multiple virtual machines simultaneously, or work with large scratch buffers in DaVinci Resolve or After Effects without hitting swap.
Is the Quadro P400 powerful enough for professional GPU workloads?
The P400 is a display-driving and light CUDA workstation GPU — it's not suited for GPU rendering or ML inference at scale. It does support up to three 4K displays simultaneously via its three Mini DisplayPort outputs and is certified for AutoCAD, SolidWorks, and similar ISV applications. If GPU compute is required, the T5820's full-length PCIe x16 slot accepts significantly more capable Quadro cards.
What is the real-world storage performance of the four 480GB SATA SSDs?
Each SATA SSD tops out at roughly 550MB/s sequential read — well below NVMe, but leagues ahead of spinning disk. In a RAID 0 or JBOD configuration across four drives you get 2.4TB usable. Sequential reads can approach 2GB/s in RAID 0, though random I/O remains bounded by the SATA 6Gb/s interface per drive.
What is covered under the 90-day warranty on a renewed unit?
The 90-day warranty covers the system as configured — hardware defects and functional failures. It does not extend to physical damage incurred after receipt. As a renewed unit, cosmetic wear should be expected; verify the seller's specific refurbishment grade before purchasing if cosmetic condition matters.