Crypto-mining is one reason, add reasons for "no graphics card":

• lack of chips
• production delays caused by coronavirus pandemic, especially by Chinas "zero COVID strategy"
• transport delays caused by coronavirus pandemic, especially by Chinas "zero COVID strategy", and by current after-effects of "2021 Suez Canal obstruction" especially for Europe

Some sellers in Germany currently limit sale of graphics cards to one or two devices per transaction. This is bad for crypto-miners but gives people a chance to get a graphics card for their PCs.

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Hello obobskivich

I'm not opposed to Ebay or any other website to get a unit that works at a good value. My objective coming here for suggestions was to weed out machines that are more designed for Microsoft since they require so much more of everything to do what we do on a budget.

I will look at the specifics of components recommended here, type the list of those and search for a machine that matches that configuration. Getting 8+ GB of RAM will help a lot, I know, and the SSD will also speed things for me.

Thank you for your input.

Sincerely,
Tommi Jordon

Hello Arnulf,

Your information is valuable if I consider a new machine. I'm not sure yet about that. Thank you! Good idea.

Tommi Jordon

While what newbie Arnulf lists is mostly nice to have, it shouldn't be considered "minimum". Tower cases are an anachronism for users of SSDs who don't need massive, power hungry discrete GPU cards or bunches of HDDs. The SSD in my 24/7 PC is 120GB. My 24/7 GPU is an Intel IGP 7 years old. The 35W TDP Haswell CPU in my 24/7 PC has 2 cores, 4 threads, and runs cool using a quiet $17 cooler. Everything works nicely here in my 24/7 PC.

Intel IGPs have improved greatly over many years, especially since they were moved to the Sandy Bridge CPU die from the NB chip. So have AMD's. There's long been no need to avoid them if you have ample RAM. IGPs are power savers too, and KISS adherents. If you buy one on a board with a PCIX16 slot, and it disappoints, a discrete GPU can be added.

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Hi Mr. Mazda,

In the tower I presently have is a 3.5 Ghz Intel, a 200 GB HDD, a CD/DVD read/write, and standard cards installed in it. The RAM is only 2 or 3GB.

Function is a bit slow when more than two pages are open, but the download & process time have been acceptable overall. I do have to keep desktop files down, as this can slow things down. Of late, it has seized a few times. I had to force closure and restart. My limitations are financial...I'd like to stay at or below $500. We don't have a lot of that for this.

Could a tech take this desktop and install a new motherboard that would support the hardware used today? Would that be an affordable option?

Tommi

Please post the model number of your GX.

It depends, Dell used to use a proprietary power supply unit that would not be compatible with a standard motherboard. Also its ratings might not be sufficient to power it either.

Buying parts separately in many cases would be more expensive then older used equipment. I picked up an Optiplex 3020 a about 2 years ago with an I3 processor and 8 GB of memory for less then US 300.00
It currently runs debian 10 fine but I do not do anything processor intensive with it. I just bought it to play with zoneminder at the time for a future project that has not happened yet...

I just looked up a Dell 3020 with an I5 processor and a 500GB hard drive from Amazon is 137.00

The motherboard upgrade question isn't answerable without knowing the exact Optiplex model you have. Most Optiplex models mount motherboards in proprietary fashion, thus do not support motherboard upgrades at reasonable cost, if at all.

Seizures could be a result of the bad capacitor plague affecting many 32 bit and some 64 bit Dells, and most other brands of that period. If you open it up and see any electrolytic capacitors that are obviously leaking or have tops that have any amount of bulge, it's time to either replace the caps, or replace the PC, with the latter much more sensible given the age of what you have. I've replaced a lot of caps myself, but it makes no sense at all to pay someone to do it with something as old as yours.

For less than $500 it is possible to buy a lot of refurb computing power 10+ years newer than what you have. The $105 Ivy Bridge PC I linked to, with another 8GB RAM added to the 8 it comes with, would be almost like the Haswell I've been using 24/7 for normal use and LAN server for 7+ years. For someone used to only 2GB RAM and one CPU core, 8GB on 4 threads would amount to a massive improvement, and even better with less than $100 spent on an SSD.

What model Optiplex do you have?

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Hi MrMazda,

I have a couple of meetings right now and dinner to finish for the kids. I'll get back to you later.

Tommi

They still do also. Many of their systems use non-standard pinouts and connectors, and/or PSUs that don't conform to the physical shape/mounting of ATX or SFX. Or, even if they are 'ATX' in terms of the pinout, the wire lengths are usually exact to wherever the PSU + Mobo fit in their specific case (I have a Precision tower that is like this - some of the leads are only a few inches long total). Some Dell motherboards can be adapted (using simple wire harness adapters) to run on normal ATX PSUs, but some cannot (e.g. if it requires non-standard voltages). And yes, as you point out, they're also usually right at the line for sufficient output wattage or per-rail current limits. All of this can also apply to HP as well - they're no better.

Overall I would only fuss with this if you have absolutely no choice - if you're going to spend a few hundred dollars you can buy standard ATX components made by a company like Asus or MSI, and use a normal PSU. At $500 (I'm assuming that's US), depending on how much stuff you can re-use (e.g. monitors, keyboard, mouse, hard drives, add-in cards, etc) you could ostensibly get brand new parts - a basic LGA 1200 motherboard and a CPU (like an i3-10100) along with some RAM can be had comfortably inside of that price, and you just put it together yourself. The only thing to watch out for if you do this: not all modern CPUs come with integrated graphics, and motherboards with their own built-in graphics are rare these days - most AMD chips require an external card (the (new) ones that don't usually have a 'G' in the model #), as do any Intel Core CPUs with an 'F' in the model, as well as most Xeons. The biggest 'loser' here in terms of used hardware is probably the AMD FX line, as none of those have integrated graphics, and motherboards that support those with integrated graphics are also fairly rare. As business_kid alluded to, buying brand-new GPUs is all but impossible (at anything approaching attainable prices for normal people) these days thanks to price gouging by manufacturers/retailers and the second-hand scalping market (and of course the manufacturers will happily tell their investors they're seeing record production and sales volume, so *someone* is buying them all, or that's just a lie - who knows anymore), but that hasn't impacted IGPs or the second-hand market for basic cards (like the FirePro V4900 or Radeon R5 340). I agree with avoiding nvidia if you have a choice.

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Dear obobskivich,

Your content has my eyes spinning, as I don't understand hardly any of it. But it does answer my question about rebuilding a tower. NO! I'm not up to this technology. Hiring someone to put it together plus the parts would exceed the cost of a second-hand tower that meets my requirements.

My desktop is an OptiPlex 790. It is still working so I have some time to source a suitable machine. I may have to get a laptop instead. Laptops come with a wireless modem, don't they? I could use a BlueTooth adapter so my hands wouldn't wave over it. Hmmm.

Thank you.
Tommi

Dell has a refurbished site that you may want to check out:

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/

The stuff on the above site is all Dell business class units that have come off of lease.

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Oh, okay. Thanks.

Tommi

The 790 is a 64 bit PC that supports at least 8GB of DDR3 RAM and has a 2 or 4 core CPU.

It's too new for any significant likelihood that motherboard capacitors would be failing. This is not the case for its power supply if yours is a SFF model, as the power supply runs a little hot, so it's possible caps in it could be an issue. If it's a tower there is some slim likelihood of PS caps going bad, but no more than in any other 10 year old PS.

I've never seen inside a 790 tower. Looking in the 790/990 .pdf reference guide I see a generic mATX motherboard, so I expect it's possible to install a generic mATX motherboard in its place with no significant issues.

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One of my computers is a 790 that runs CentOS. With 8 GB I can easily run a light weight desk top virtual machine. It's used mostly for local data and web server so it isn't overly strained.

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Good afternoon to all who assisted me,

Here's an update with the OptiPlex 790
Some housekeeping was required because dust had infiltrated the tower, so I cleaned inside and out thoroughly. In doing so, I found a service tag 2LQM5V1, and manufacture date 20120625.
This machine has an Intel Dual Core I3 2120 3.3 GHz processor. It is supposed to be 64 bit, and some of the data confirm it. And there were 4 GB of RAM installed, at that time.
Since then, I visited a computer store in town, purchased 4 GB of DDR3 memory, as specified, installed it, and went into the terminal to confirm the installation. It is all registered. I presume the machine will now allow me to load a 64 bit version of Linux 20-2. I will document the system configuration for reference in the future.

Question: Can I overwrite version 18-3 with version 20-2, or is it best to wipe the drive and start from scratch?

I want to thank everyone who offered their input these past two days.

Tommi Jordon