Upgrading a secretary's computer...

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Looking at upgrading the secretary's computer at a local non-profit that I volunteer at.

The one that she has now is a Dell Dimension 4300s (I hate that "s" chassis), that is 9 years old. It has a grand total of two slow (v1.0) USB ports, a 20GB hard drive, and will only hold a maximum 512MB of memory (which I maxed out a long time ago). It's simply not worth spending any more money on it at this point.

She already has a newer wireless keyboard and mouse, and a newer flat screen monitor... so those can be reused.

I'm looking at replacing it with a Dell Optiplex GX620 mini-tower. P4/3.0GHz, 1GB memory (4 slots total), 320GB HD, DVD burner, eight v2.0 USB ports, and is running XP Pro. I'm guessing it is around 5 years old, and was formerly used in an office environment.

I can get this for $125 delivered, with a 30 day warranty.

I think it would be $125 that is well spent, and it should have another 4-5 years of use in it. Agree/disagree?
 
That new Optiplex would be a screamer compared with the tired old Dimension... and you can't do much better than that price for anything with a warranty - go for it.
 
"Tired" is a polite description for what that 4300s is... It is sooooo slow, I'm not sure how the secretary keeps her sanity while using it.

Not only is it slow, here's what they have connected to it, using a USB hub connected to one of its two slow v1.0 USB ports...

a scanner
an ink jet printer
a label printer
a wireless keyboard and mouse
a USB wireless network adapter

I'll probably put another GB of memory in the OptiPlex right away, so it will then have a total of 2GB.
 
$125 could be very close to building you a new sempron machine 2.7ghz.. That will run circles around an old p4 box.

I had a sata hard drive and a sata dvd rom, and was able to build a sempron box for about $130.

Runs windows 7 excellent, 2gb ram..
 
$125 is pretty steep for that, but it would be ample that's for sure.
I bought a few IBM desktop machines (rock solid) for $25 each with similar specs.
 
You could always build something from Newegg:

1. Case/PSU combo $56.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811121004
2. ASUS P7H55M-LE Motherboard $67.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131661R
3. Intel Core i3 540 (3.06Ghz, dual-core) $114.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115221
4. 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) $40.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144262
5. Western Digital 160GB HDD $36.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075
6. Samsung DVD-rW $15.99 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151192

And voila! brand new system for $334.00 including case and PSU.

A bit more than what you wanted to spend, but it would be a whole heck of a lot faster!
 
Originally Posted By: SLCraig
I bought a few IBM desktop machines (rock solid) for $25 each with similar specs.


Where, please tell...?
 
Don't get a 5 year old dell, their capacitors are only good for 2-3 years.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Don't get a 5 year old dell, their capacitors are only good for 2-3 years.



Let's see. I'm replacing a 9 year old Dell, that still works.

I'm typing this on a nearly 6 year old Dell, and also have a 10 year old Dell, and they both still work...

???
 
Originally Posted By: HM12460
...so can you tell us a little more about the secretary??


She's old enough for you to call her "Granny", and she drives a Buick.

'nuff said?
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: HM12460
...so can you tell us a little more about the secretary??


She's old enough for you to call her "Granny", and she drives a Buick.

'nuff said?


Is she hot?
wink.gif
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: eljefino
Don't get a 5 year old dell, their capacitors are only good for 2-3 years.



Let's see. I'm replacing a 9 year old Dell, that still works.

I'm typing this on a nearly 6 year old Dell, and also have a 10 year old Dell, and they both still work...

???

Yes, but the GX620 is a known cap cooker. badcaps.net has premade kits with all the caps needed for this model in stock. That should tell you how often they service them.
 
The web will be painful on this PC if she needs it.

I would highly recommend getting it to 2GB if not 3GB and it will work likely fine. Make sure she is running MS Office in the same vintage or earlier and all will be fine.
 
Originally Posted By: Colt45ws
Yes, but the GX620 is a known cap cooker. badcaps.net has premade kits with all the caps needed for this model in stock. That should tell you how often they service them.


Now, wait. I want to learn something here.

They do have the kits, but they are for the SFF and USFF chassis. The Small Form Factor is a *small* desktop style chassis, and the Ultra Small Form Factor is even smaller than that, so small that it has an external power supply.

There's no mention of a kit for the mini-tower chassis... which is what I'm considering.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
The web will be painful on this PC if she needs it.

I would highly recommend getting it to 2GB if not 3GB and it will work likely fine. Make sure she is running MS Office in the same vintage or earlier and all will be fine.



Painful because of the 1GB or painful because of the P4? If so, that is easily and cheaply fixed problem... The motherboard has four slots to work with (one advantage of the GX620).

I will be reinstalling whatever version of Office (I'm assuming that it is Office XP) that she's using on her 9 year old Dimension, which is running XP Home.
 
Originally Posted By: rjundi
The web will be painful on this PC if she needs it.

I would highly recommend getting it to 2GB if not 3GB and it will work likely fine. Make sure she is running MS Office in the same vintage or earlier and all will be fine.



XP Pro runs just fine on 1GB of RAM, and ANY version of Office right through to 2010 will work fine on it as well.
 
Good Lord, sometimes I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone when it comes to "computer advice" on this forum. 1gb will make that machine work just fine for your intended purpose.

Dave



Originally Posted By: rjundi
The web will be painful on this PC if she needs it.

I would highly recommend getting it to 2GB if not 3GB and it will work likely fine. Make sure she is running MS Office in the same vintage or earlier and all will be fine.
 
Originally Posted By: D.K.
Good Lord, sometimes I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone when it comes to "computer advice" on this forum. 1gb will make that machine work just fine for your intended purpose.

Dave



Originally Posted By: rjundi
The web will be painful on this PC if she needs it.

I would highly recommend getting it to 2GB if not 3GB and it will work likely fine. Make sure she is running MS Office in the same vintage or earlier and all will be fine.



Agreed, LOL!
 
LOL! With a 32bit XP Pro w/ 1GB ram on my old socket 478 celeron based desktop, I've been able to keep up to all my regular work/pleasure related stuff with headrooms to spare:

-Office XP Pro full version
-Dreamweaver CS2
-Photoshop CS2
-AutoCAD
-etc, etc.

and still some headroom to spare.

Now, lemme see: 2~3GB on an XP? I'd rather save that for those memory hungry 32bit Vista/Win7 or better yet:save more RAM for 64bit Win7 instead.

My 2c's worth. I'm typing through my wifey's Vista premium (tuned, to strip down all the unnecessary memory and processor hogs) with only 1.5GB of RAM, on a single core AMD 64bit processor.

Q.
 
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