They have good, basic design. They last forever and are easy to repair. They have everything you need, no extras, but nothing lacking.
They’re like the Platonic Ideal of laptops; you open it up and you don’t say “wow”, you say “Well, this sure is a laptop” – but that’s not an insult; that’s what makes them the perfect all purpose general laptop.
Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts and opinions :)
I’m not sure about today, but my school had the Optiplex 760 line like 15 years back, and those things were rock solid. I wouldn’t be surprised if those units, and their accompanying black keyboards and 1280x1024 monitors, were still around somewhere today.
Newer optiplexes are the same.
Even the small ones can easily be opened, remove the fans, RAM, SSD, all without a tool.
The only problem they have (including the model you shown) is that they use a proprietary 5-pin fan connector.