Andreas Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Hi Got the offer to take home this PC Dell Optiplex GX 260 for a small fee. Question is whether this would be worth it - it needs memory (UKP100 for 1GB), a graphics card unless the built-in Intel 845GV or whatever its called can handle CM (and the best it could take appears to be AGP 4x which I make to be an ATI Radeon NO FOG 128MB or Nvidia MX440) at UK25, and a new HDD at say UKP50 to play CMBB and maybe IL-2 FB (which is all I want). Then I would need to buy a monitor at UKP200 and a wireless router at UK25. Total system cost including the fee UKP300 (US$450) plus the hassle of putting it all together. Processor is a Pentium 5 2.4. Any views on this? Is it worth getting considering the follow-on cost? The prime reason for getting this over my G4 is that it would be a space-saving measure compared to the G4 tower and that I could play IL-2. All the best Andreas 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
civdiv Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Originally posted by Andreas: Hi Got the offer to take home this PC Dell Optiplex GX 260 for a small fee. Question is whether this would be worth it - it needs memory (UKP100 for 1GB), a graphics card unless the built-in Intel 845GV or whatever its called can handle CM (and the best it could take appears to be AGP 4x which I make to be an ATI Radeon NO FOG 128MB or Nvidia MX440) at UK25, and a new HDD at say UKP50 to play CMBB and maybe IL-2 FB (which is all I want). Then I would need to buy a monitor at UKP200 and a wireless router at UK25. Total system cost including the fee UKP300 (US$450) plus the hassle of putting it all together. Processor is a Pentium 5 2.4. Any views on this? Is it worth getting considering the follow-on cost? The prime reason for getting this over my G4 is that it would be a space-saving measure compared to the G4 tower and that I could play IL-2. All the best Andreas Personally, I wouldn't bother with it. Yeah, you could spend the money and bring it up to par, but you are still stuck with a middle-of-the-road processor, and old MB, and old memory architecture. Systems like this are designed for people who know nothing about computers. I mean, 20GB HD and 128 MB RAM, why even bother? You basically bought a case, a power supply, and a processor as everything else needs to be upgraded. Since you were going to do the upgrades yourself, why not just gut your existing desktop, I mean, the case and powersupply, at a minimum should bbe reusable. I mean, look here; http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1828379&sku=A458-1116%20B for $279 you get more stuff than you would keep off that Gateway system. And you aren't suck with old architecture. Or here; http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1580857&sku=I69-2114%20A Or even here; http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1592094&sku=M450-2018%20F Especially with the last one, you get a much better processor, better MB and memory architecture, a big power supply, and 1 GB of ram. Yeah, you still need the monitor and the video card, but you are starting with a modern computer as opposed to one that is already like 2 years old. I mean, PC2100? That's closer to 3 years old, I think. Now, I am not recommending the specs on these systems, I haven't done any research, you might want to research the MBs. But I don't do desktops anymore, I'm all laptops now. But I used to build my own systems. Just my $.02. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Thanks for that. I'll probably still take it home and give it to my parents A laptop would of course be the ultimate in terms of space-saving, but that would cost ca. €1,000 more. All the best Andreas 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redwolf Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 That is a horrible gaming PC by all measures to apply, CPU, RAM, graphics, all dog slow. DDR266 RAM? Give me a break, that is a horrible thing to do with a memory bandwidth starved Pentium-4. Not even a DVD drive. Better machines than that go to the dumpster these days. I didn't look in detail but you can bet it only take half-height AGO cards in which case you can only buy slow cards for lots of money. I also bet 45 cookies that this thing is very very loud. You see you have a power-hungry P4 in these but no space for good airflow. So yet-engine like fans are the only option. What you want is a Shuttle (a maker of small cases with special PSUs) with an AMD64 board. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 It is actually very quiet - I sit next to it every day, it is on the desk. Certainly much quieter than my tank, err, G4 at home. All the best Andreas 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted February 7, 2006 Share Posted February 7, 2006 Redwolf is correct in that the case will only support half-height AGP cards, which really limits your selection (to usually slower, older generation cards). I had one HP system that was similar and at the time the fastest card I could find was a GeForce FX5200. Albeit it was a step up from the integrated graphics, but not to the level that was really desired. Searching Newegg I've found the following (several of which should be available from a well stocked UK retailer/e-tailer): an ATI Radeon 9600 'Mobility' 128Mb (which could be a driver nightmare since the 'mobilities' aren't supported directly in the available Catalyst drivers), a few Nvidia GeForce 6200's 128Mb, several Nvidia GeForce 5200's 128Mb, serveral Nvidia GeForce 4000's 128Mb (a GeForce 4 440MX basically) and several ATI Radeon 9250's 128Mb and Radeon 9550's 128Mb. Very few, if any, had the half-height bracket itself. The one other, small, advanatage these cards had is that most of them are passively cooled; keeping the Dell a quiet box. Conversely, being passively cooled means that they could potentially overheat easier if you're playing 3D games for long stretches of time. In terms of power, the GeForce 6200's would probably be the best bet (but only by a small margin). Asus makes one that seems good. The Intel 845G can handle CMx1 series games without problems (except a lack of fog I believe, just like ATI). It doesn't perform 'great', but it is serviceable. I wouldn't care to play IL-2 with the integrated graphics however. As already mentioned the motherboard and memory technology is quite dated. The PC2100/DDR266 memory is a bit slow and the 845G chipset with DDR support didn't really provide a lot of memory bandwidth to the P4 (at the 266MHz speeds). It appears that the motherboard won't really accept anything faster than a 533MHz bus, Socket 478 P4. The fastest CPU Intel made at that bus speed and socket is the 3.06GHz Northwood, though there is no guarantee that the Dell would actually support that CPU. If a quiet box is truly important to you or your parents, then this box may be worth it due to the 'price' you may be getting for it. It just has a few too many limitations to make it a decent gaming platform. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andreas Posted February 8, 2006 Author Share Posted February 8, 2006 Hi Schrullenhaft Thanks a lot for the very good advice. I probably take it home for my mother-in-law, who currently has a P II 266 working at home. She already has the screen and keyboard, so it would be the best machine for her. She is also not much into 3D gaming. All the best Andreas 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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