Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

Panopticon · 2019-03-06 12:12:46

Well my old dell from back in 2009 died today, ten years is a pretty good run. Not dead but not really worth trying to fix, i know what the issue is that being the psu has died, but to get another im looking at around $70 or $80 and i dont trust anything on ebay as they look dodgy, probably from old units. I think the dell is just not worth reapairing but i could be proven wrong here?

So maybe time for a new desktop, nothing fancy but ive put together something online at a local dealer for just under $500, what do you think? I could get intel for a bit cheaper but want to try amd for a change.

Computer Configuration #114010 $475.00
AMD AM4 Athlon 200GE Dual Core 3.2GHz Radeon CPU YD200GC6FBBOX Vega 3 Graphics
Cooler Master Hyper 212X CPU Heatsink and Fan PN RR-212X-20PM-R1
ASUS AM4 MicroATX Prime A320M-K Motherboard
4GB DDR4 (1x4GB) Crucial 2400MHz RAM Module PN CT4G4DFS824A
MSI GT1030 2GB OC Low Profile PCIe Video Card PN GT 1030 2G LP OC
* Add a Monitor from this List
Casecom MicroATX CM13B Case with 550W PSU
Integrated Power Supply
Integrated Sound Card
Integrated Network Connection

Last edited by Panopticon (2019-03-06 12:14:47)

nixer · 2019-03-06 13:39:40

Dual Core 3.2GHz... 4GB DDR4 (1x4GB)

Do you like to play with virtual machines? For me, this is a little light on resources. But then I don't know how close you want to stick with the $475 price you mentioned.
Will you be putting it together yourself? If you are, then I would at least look at what Newegg has in the way of bundling. Here are a couple of quick links for "DIY kits" that they currently have. I saw one or two that were just under $700 and they came with a 6-core processor and more RAM.

http://www.newegg.com/DIY-PC-Combos/Pro … tore/ID-33

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi … =BESTMATCH

I just last month purchased a kit and assembled myself. It works great and am very pleased. I do not like the cases that they are pushing now as it does not have any optical drives openings on the front. I chose the Corsair 200R case and I really love it.

Panopticon · 2019-03-06 13:50:14

No i dont play around with virtual machines anymore. Im not a gamer either, at best i just want it to play music and video well and that would be about it. That price is assembled by the local computer shop, i could probably do it myself but i get a 12 month warranty if they do it so its worth it that way i believe. One thing i am a bit curious about is the lack of an operating system and hard drive as i will be doing this myself, i wonder if they will be able to do it without one? Will have to ask them i suppose. I have my personal hard drive from the dell im hoping i can just plug in and reconfigure.

I havent looked at newegg so thanks for bringing that up i will check those out. Good to hear you had a nice experience, it always helps others when reccomendations like this come through.

F_Sauce · 2019-03-06 15:22:25

Hei!

I've got four PCs running, six if you include the laptop and mobile-phone, and the eldest is from 1999 (running on SuSE 9.1); I've built most of them myself so I kind of swap and change parts not working all the time, however, the original CPU and RAM is still in use in the oldest computer
I'm kind of a nostalgic person, so running and keeping a stock of old computers and components, as well as old software, appeals to me.

The only thing I keep in mind watching, and upgrading, are the hard-drives; the PC I'm using now is from 2007 (MB, CPU, GPU, RAM etc), all my correspondence, mail, logs, student-projects and so on are kept here; my production PCs are far better, but I don't care changing my day to day PC to one of those as long as the current set-up works well.

As stated above, this PC is from 2007 and has no problem playing and watching «common» music and videos at all; forcing it to work with resolutions greater than e.g. 4000x6000 px (videos), might be a different matter though; I don't know.

Cheers,
Olav

Last edited by F_Sauce (2019-03-06 15:29:03)

PedroReina · 2019-03-09 11:49:15

Panopticon wrote:

I have my personal hard drive from the dell im hoping i can just plug in and reconfigure.

I'm sure that you can do just that and it will work.

But ten years is a long time for a hard drive. Even if the SMART info is right, I will change the hard drive for a new one, most likely an SSD one, as they are nowadays very affordable and the benefits in speed will be very notable.

Panopticon · 2019-03-09 13:06:48

Hi Pedro, i will most likely get a cheap usb3 to sata 3.5 inch enclosure for the old hdd. This hdd is a 500 mb spin disk and is older than the dell optiplex by two years, maybe 3 given production time. It was out of my 2008 quad core dell xps at the time. Still going, its just a standard 7200 rpm seagate drive but will probably die sooner rather than later with continued use so i will just get all the personal info off and turn it into a spare drive, may even just fill it up with compressed personal photos and info and not use it but keep it as a time capsule.

I need to transition to more updated equipment before the hardware i have is obsolete or made obsolete, so ssd and newer motherboards and cpu on the horizon when i can afford it.

Last edited by Panopticon (2019-03-09 13:10:02)

Panopticon · 2019-03-09 13:15:56

F_Sauce wrote:

Hei!
I've got four PCs running, six if you include the laptop and mobile-phone, and the eldest is from 1999 (running on SuSE 9.1); I've built most of them myself so I kind of swap and change parts not working all the time, however, the original CPU and RAM is still in use in the oldest computer
I'm kind of a nostalgic person, so running and keeping a stock of old computers and components, as well as old software, appeals to me.
The only thing I keep in mind watching, and upgrading, are the hard-drives; the PC I'm using now is from 2007 (MB, CPU, GPU, RAM etc), all my correspondence, mail, logs, student-projects and so on are kept here; my production PCs are far better, but I don't care changing my day to day PC to one of those as long as the current set-up works well.
As stated above, this PC is from 2007 and has no problem playing and watching «common» music and videos at all; forcing it to work with resolutions greater than e.g. 4000x6000 px (videos), might be a different matter though; I don't know.
Cheers,
Olav

Thats good but have you tried updating power supply on those older machines? I will still keep the old dell, i may be able to get a decent psu for it in the future.

PedroReina · 2019-03-09 18:23:21

Panopticon wrote:

i will most likely get a cheap usb3 to sata 3.5 inch enclosure for the old hdd

Good idea, IMHO. Please also consider something like that:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L3W4G1I
I have two of them in my box and they are very useful to make backups on standard spinning drives.

Panopticon wrote:

This hdd is a 500 mb spin disk

You mean 500 GB, right?

Panopticon wrote:

will probably die sooner rather than later

This is for sure. I learned the hard way how important is doing regular backups.

Panopticon wrote:

i will just get all the personal info off and turn it into a spare drive

Wise move, IMHO. Now, I have four backups and rotate them weekly.

Panopticon wrote:

ssd and newer motherboards and cpu on the horizon when i can afford it.

Money is a big constraint, of course. One of the zillion things I like with free software is that we can do a better use of the resources, money and hardware.

Good luck

Panopticon · 2019-03-10 14:27:52

500 gb yes..

I will not use ebay or amazon, and will never do so.

Regarding amazon, they use slave labour and the owner is a complete asshole.

Last edited by Panopticon (2019-03-10 14:30:49)

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#1 2019-03-06 12:12:46

Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#2 2019-03-06 13:39:40

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#3 2019-03-06 13:50:14

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#4 2019-03-06 15:22:25

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#5 2019-03-09 11:49:15

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#6 2019-03-09 13:06:48

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#7 2019-03-09 13:15:56

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#8 2019-03-09 18:23:21

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

#9 2019-03-10 14:27:52

Re: Old Dell optiplex 780 sff died

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