This video discusses an old, decommissioned computer pulled from a client. It is a real-world perspective on what's possible with an old computer and why a business should never try to upgrade equipment over purchasing new.
i used an optiplex 790 for 12 years had an ssd and a 4 tb HDD 16 gb of ram and ketp getting new gpu for gaming the last gpu iinstalled was a GTX1050 TI got a use PSU that thing ran amazing I7 3200!! i love DELL products just got a Dell 5285 2-1 tablet/laptop and i love taking it every where , nice video btw thamk you
Always putting old stuff to good use. Two dead HDD's are currently stacked as the base of my home made desk top lamp. My foldable shopping cart has side panels that can be swung open once the cart is unfolded, but they tended to swing back over at times. So I took the strong magnets from the two dead HDDs and glued those to the side panels, and that keeps each of them exactly where they should be. Two other parts of my cart fell apart, but I repaired them via the use of two old hard drive case adapters. LOL
Using a Dell 9020 SFF right now to type this. i7 4770 3.4ghz, 32gb ram. Two one TB SSDs. RTX A2000 low profile video card that needs no extra power. It will run any game I throw at it beautifully. The power supply holding up for as long as I want to use the machine for is the only question mark in my mind. No one has a suggestion for an alternative non Dell power supply WITHOUT swapping to a different case. (Cost effective or not.) It IS good to see that the original power supplies can last.
Yep, these old office PC are quite robust. I do have an old HP G1 600 TWR with similar spec (i7 4770T) but paired with RTX 2060 6GB. Standard 320W psu still able to handle that gpu at default setting (160W full load), yet with simple undervolt using MSI Afterburner it could run at 1380MHz 0.7v nicely (no boost); 99% load 75-80W.
My office replaces their computers when the warranty expires (every 3 years). They require them left on overnight so they can install updates. Starting in 2020, all staff now use laptops
I use one of these running debian 12 + zoneminder for my home security. I have a SSD for the OS and a old mechnical drive for the storage it works really well.
and just to add, the mechanical drive doesnt fit in the case so i forked out $20 on ebay for an external usb 3.5inch caddy this is working well. When the drive dies ill swap it out for one of my many other old 3.5 inch drives. I keep an eye on the smart stats, as soon as i see anything odd like sector re writes ill ditch the drive.
Lucky for me at my business, I'm part owner and the it guy, so I do all the upgrades and replacements on computers and it only cost me the parts. I have 2 dell optiplex 3060 sff i5 6 core cpu 8 gb ram they came shipped with 500 gb segate hdd those hdd only lasted 6 months they where replaced with m2 ssd hdd on the main board slot. 160 gb. Then we have 3 of the usff versions of the dell optiplex with 4 core i5 cpu, 8 gb ram, and m2 spill state hdds those came with it, and wifi cards had then about 4 ish years now. We do not rotate computers out I just wait for em to die.
Master Jim. Thank you profusely for this video. Trying to help out a family member with their 9020 SFF, as well. Speaking of wireless card upgrades for these PC's, which do you recommend? Somebody threw a TP-Link USB wireless card on the front of this machine and it's a dog. I'm looking to use that small PCI-E slot on the mobo and figured you'd know a great candidate for the job.
Tp-link is typically not bad. Any usb wifi adapter will work…there are alot of variables with wifi due to the router being accessed and what it can handle (speed, protocol and such). They do make wifi adapter cards for those machines. I try to stay hardwired whenever possible.
Some of us cant afford the 2000 bucks that you say, personally I'll just spend the 500 dollars on it holding on for a while because, i can only go budget at the moment
Have the same desktop. It's a 2013 with a i5 cpu and has 16gb of ram. It didn't have a hard drive in it so I put a ssd in it. It was really clean. Runs windows 10 just fine
The upside of companies upgrading their hardware every 2 or 3 years, is that us nerds get hardware to tinker and play at rockbottom prices or free. With that said, I extended the useful life of dozens of machines with the ssd/ram upgrade combo. Both for clients and for personal use. The only downiside I´ve found is that old computers arent as power efficient as new ones. But if I am able to extend the life of a computer and reduce e-waste, it is time well spent.
The old hgst 6tb are awesome drives. They run forever and are only 68 bux. Just a thought for hard drive storage. Blue ssd way to go for c drive. I wouldn't go smaller than 1tb. They're the same price at 500gigs.
The most important reason for the business to replace rather than upgrade is that it puts good machines out onto the market for us to get at low prices.
Good luck using them. They won’t run Windows 11 and we are seeing a great deal of “problems” with Windows 10 recently that I believe is intentional…to force upgrades.
@@JNHEscapes I've got a 9020 and a 3620, both running Windows 11 and no issues. I believe that the stringent Windows 11 requirements were put in place to force purchase of new computers. If I get 2 years out of them, I'm happy. Then I'll buy some 2020 computers to play with.
@@SpynCycle57 agreed fully, I've got a 9020 and it runs win11 better than a 7th gen pc I have there plays modern games everything and all i did was put an ssd so there!....😁
My 2001 IBM NetVista computer is still up and going to this day, but it is currently doing nothing but tell me what to do, and when to do it, such as saying, "Get off your butt and vacuum the carpet", or when to get on the treadmill, etc., and it goes into sleep mode in between these verbal notices. LOL My other 2008 Lenovo ThinkCentre m58 computer, with a Quad Processor Q9500 CPU, had a PSU problem, and so I had to spend a whopping $9.95 to replace the bulging defective electrolytic capacitors within the PSU. This is my fully working backup computer. Meanwhile I also have my DELL 7070 with i5-8500 CPU, RX-6400 graphics card, 32GB DDR4 ram, Samsung 980 PRO NVMe 4.0 M.2 500GB SSD, DVD optical drive, and a 1T HDD, and of course the Win11 PRO OS.
I have a opiplex 9020 and it is awork hosre we use it as our gaming machine daily has 16GB of ram an SSD it just keep rolling on all the parts are Replacable Dells uses some of there own SOckets for fans and such but there are other and the the power lines and plug off the old fan can besolidered in so you have the 5 pin plug the 5th pin is not used any how not sure why dell did that but not a problem . if you can get these refurbe for under $400 refurbished you cant beat it Hd drive replace with SSD these are not a problem they are die hards and all parts are easily replaceable even the Mother boards can be bought best Price I have seen start $15 new old stock and refurbished I suggest refurbished as all the Eletrolitics are tested and weak and failing is replaced new unused does not promise sure bet as eletrolicts age even without use over time even fast in many cases . . I have seen guy with new $4000 to $6000 gaming PCs thake months and still not getting them to perform they give up start over try to sell the one they cant get to work right .
just ask a friend to do your upgrades, it's not hard with other tutorials on youtube. I do upgrades for free... for all friends and family and you save tons of money. its best to always reuse as much as much as we can to avoid E-waste.
Same here. I got a dell 9020, linux mint 21, 4tb hd, and 32gigs of ram. This baby does everything that I want it to do. No problem. Best PC on a budget.
This is true though because as a tech you want to be able to help as many people as possible, to save money but this isn't the right way to do it. The problem with these proprietary Dell machines is that as good as the specs for most of them still are the platforms are old, so any amount of money you want to use to upgrade these can be put towards are more modern setup that quite frankly isn't that much more cash anyway. If for example you have an i7 4770K CPU believe it or not a Core i3 13100 can easily and I mean easily replace that which happens to be an equivalent quad core CPU to that old i7, so the areas where you think you're saving money by upgrading an old machine no its going to cost you in the long run.
Can windows 11 be installed in this? I was thinking of getting one of these and upgrade it. I don't game on any desktop. I play games on a console, being the baby boomer I am, lol.
Everything fails eventually. Your beloved SSD WILL fail. I've had computers since 1989 and only 2 HDDs have failed. One Seagate and one WD. I've had two other fall on the floor, but that's not the same thing. :-) I work my drives pretty hard. Not only that, but I worked in IT for 25 years, and we had a rash of disk failures in a shipment of DELL Optiplex desktops. I'm afraid I don't remember what brand the drives were. Other than that, drives were pretty reliable.
I’ve had alot of mechanical drives fail (mainly seagate) over my 28 years in IT, but I have yet to have any ssd fail. I do rotate equipment every 4-5 years so I rarely give them the chance. Thanks for watching!
I'm not sure what you mean? I have users / clients that have extensive applications and custom configurations. Some workstations can take upwards of a full day or two to get back exactly as the user wants it. I also have some users that will literally fire you if their icons are not exactly where they were before so, yes, things take time. Any "IT guy" that walks in and says he can swap a hard drive and get you back up and running perfectly with no problems in 30 minutes or less is full of shit and you will most certainly have issues. Patience is key in the tech field or you will do nothing but run back and forth with call backs.
Cloning the boot drive brings everything, including the desktop icons back to where they were before. Ram swap doesn't change the software settings either
@@coreys121 ok, so the next time you do it take note of the time. When you get the call from the client, get your tools and such together, drive over, replace the drive, restore the image, verify everything and work with the client to test and verify everything and see how long it actually takes. You remind me of a few employees I’ve had that would bill .25 for driving across town when in reality it took .75. People never really watch how long something takes…and until you do, you will never make any real money. I do not need you to educate me on how long something takes. I’ve been managing clients and technicians for 28 years with locations in three states. What have you done? Also, you would want your technician to take their time during a major failure. The last thing you would want is for the tech to rush the job, lose data and the piss off the client. Can you do it in 45 min? Sure…but would the client be happier if you took your time, stuck around for awhile and made sure they were ok? Absolutely…so 3 hours.
I use two OptiPlex's runs great and a 17 yr old Toshiba laptop with a ssd swap for browsing watching vids works fine heh def got my money worth out of that.
no1 you can add a m.2 drive , you can get a card put a m.2 in it and put it where you have a spare pci slot , you can also add many drives and use it as a server , the operating system is free if you look and you can also use it as a gaming machine to play not AAA games but you can but mid tier gaming . I have done it myself so easy to do with some know how. ps the old hard drives only last 5 years a ssd lasts 10 years , but you can use old drive as a secondary as a copy of o/s or data.
This video was about business related solutions. I would never use an add-on card in a business production environment you’re just asking for trouble. Also, drivers and such become an issue with unsupported operating systems such as servers. Yet another reason not to use this machine for other purposes - in a business production environment. If you wanted to take this pc and play with it in such ways at home no big deal and yes you can do all of that.
@@JNHEscapes I have done it myself it works perfectly and you do get the drivers for it . crucial who have drivers for your m.2 is also supported so yes you can use it as a business that is not a problem , if you are using for a big organization then no as they use bigger servers. which i actually configured for businesses . but for small businesses it is fine to use . It is not a problem so drivers are not a issue using the pc as a server is not a problem for a small business including using a m.2 and using more ssds for storage or as raids if the psu going to be a problem not really you could use a much larger wattage or use another psu to use the storage from and duplicate sata sockets so i have to disagree with you
I'm sorry, but what is misinformation in this video? Nothing I said was inaccurate? You might need 64 gb of ram in a small form factor if you used this machine to host a few virtual desktops for remote access. Ever thought about that? Nope. I'm sure you haven't. Accusing someone or a video of having misinformation is a serious allegation these days. What is your background? I have been managing clients and computers for 28 years what about you? Also, I did not create the specs for this machine - DELL DID. So ask them why they maxed the ram capability at 64 Gb in a sff.
Who takes hours to upgrade the RAM and SSD on an OptiPlex? If the job is super complicated, then you might need a pocket screwdriver. But i swear i could switch out the drives in one of these blindfolded.
I think people miss the point of my job. Yes, the ram and ssd can be done in minutes probably with no tools at all, but my job is to get a clients machine EXACTLY the way it was before changing the hard drive. This means down to the icons being in the exact same place as before…yes, I have had arguments with clients over where the icons were (it’s why I take pictures before and after). I swear I have had more comments from people saying “oh I could do that blah…” I am well aware of how long it takes to simply swap a drive, but as you well know there is often more to it than the simple physical act. 🙄🔫
You know what makes me laugh it's when people take this style of Optiplex and stand it up like it's a tower. Dude if it's a business all they have to do is add a 100$ SSD no labour and it boosts there performance 10 fold.
no in the end putting in the work every time you have a newer machine if I puter New parts in an old machine I have a newer machine far under the cost of new .
