What Is the Difference Between a Dell T5500 & T7500?

The T5500 and T7500 are computer workstations made by Dell. Both these computers are part of Dell's Precision line of workstations, designed to work at high speeds on business networks of all sizes. The T5500 and T7500 share some similarities in regard to the types of technology they contain; their main differences come from the degree to which each workstation uses that technology.

One major difference between the T5500 and T7500 is the size. The T5500 is the smaller of the two models, measuring 17.64 inches tall, 6.73 inches wide and 18.54 inches deep; in comparison, the larger T7500 measures 22.26 inches tall, 8.5 inches wide and 22.3 inches deep. The T5500 can work as a standing tower CPU or while lying on its side, while the T7500 is designed to work only as a standing tower. Each model has 11 USB ports, one serial port, one parallel port, one ESATA port, one RJ-45 jack and two PS/2 ports. However, two IEEE 1394a ports -- one on the front and another on the back -- are standard with the T7500 while they're optional features on the T5500. The T5500 comes with three optical drives: a DVD-ROM drive, a DVD+/-RW drive and Blu-ray. All these drives are loaded using a tray slot. The T7500 workstation doesn't offer any of these drives standard or as an upgrade.

Both the T5500 and T7500 use DDR3 SDRAM. This technology works at high bandwidths, transferring information at twice the speed of its immediate predecessor, DDR2 SDRAM. While the T5500 has up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, the T7500 has three times that amount -- up to 12GB.

Both workstations can accommodate up to two video cards. In each case, the computer is compatible with PCI Express x16 Gen 2 graphics cards. The difference lies in the maximum power of these graphics cards. Cards for the T5500 have a maximum power usage of 150 watts each, while the cards for the T7500 use up to 225 watts each.

Although similar, The T5500 and T7500 workstations are designed for different uses. Dell describes the T5500 as a workstation designed for environments where space is limited. Additionally, the T5500 is geared for those working in the financial analysis, professional engineering and content design industries. The T7500 is slightly larger and so less ideal for space-sensitive environments. Dell geared this workstation to applications in the engineering, digital content creation and scientific computing fields. As the larger -- and more powerful -- of the two workstations, the T7500 comes with a larger price as well; as of June 2011, Dell sells the T7500 for $1,469, roughly $100 more than the T5500.