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Optiplex 745 Upgrade
I have a Optiplex 745 SFF I use as my gaming computer. I stuck 6 GB of RAM, a 500 GB laptop hard drive, and a MSI Radeon R7 240 graphics card into it. I had to cut the hard drive bay in half to fit my graphics card, hence why I use an adapter to put the smaller hard drive into it. Right now it runs fine, but the Core 2 Duo e6700 processor is somewhat of the weak link in the machine. It runs fine under normal load. But when I run games using a lot of equations like War Thunder and Kerbal Space Program, which both are flight simulators and both are also somewhat graphic intensive, (War Thunder especially) it runs at 100% utilization all of the time. The fans spin up to high speed and my whole pc sounds like a jet turbine. I don't mind the noise, (I usually have headphones on) but the processor seems to work a lot harder compared to the rest of the machine. I am considering upgrading the processor, maybe to a Core 2 Quad or a Xeon using the LGA 771 to 775 mod. I also am going to upgrade to 8 GB of RAM sometime in the future. Any suggestions on what cheap CPU I could possibly buy or find?
aceslow
2 Posts
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April 4th, 2017 21:00
Why sink any more money into it? I guess I understand the fun in modding the case, card, power supply, and all things attached and the best you'll come out with is a machine that busted your *** on and it's still 4 generations behind the curve. The 745 PSU will never be a man enough to carry the video card you want down in your darkest heart... Do what I did, grad a passive cooled radeon, dial that cigarette lighter hot CPU back a bit, load up KODI and put it out to pasture streaming movies for the kids... I new I3 running @ 1.7 , onboard graphics, and small weak memory will still gut that power house you want to build because of architecture, not horsepower...
BrooklynT
3 Posts
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April 5th, 2017 12:00
Also, that Optiplex 745 SFF was running as a office PC for around 7 years. My father, a computer engineer who taught me everything I know, picked it up from an office he was working at after he noticed it sitting in the closet, unused. It is already 10 years old, and it still runs well. Kind of off topic, but those office computers were built to last. The only things breaking on those Optiplex's are the capacitors. Here are reasons why I am keeping it:
1. It small enough to fit into a carry-on suitcase;
2. It runs games at 30 - 40 fps on medium settings;
3. It is easy to find cheap parts for; (power supply, RAM, processors)
4. It is quiet;
5. It looks like it should barely run, making it somewhat of a sleeper; (it has a floppy disk drive!)
6. It can support good video cards;
7. It runs faster than my friend's laptop; (and it has more RAM and a better processor!)
8. It still is supported by Window's 10.
You see, the reasons I am keeping it outweigh the cons, which are as followed:
1. It only supports half-height video cards;
2. It only has a LGA 775 processor socket;
3. It only uses DDR2 RAM;
4. It can't overclock.
BrooklynT
3 Posts
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April 5th, 2017 12:00
Well aceslow, you see, the problem I have is that I have limited funds. You see, I am pretty young, so I don't have the money to get another machine. (unless I find one thrown out on the street.) The machine runs well for what I am using it for, mostly War Thunder and KSP. It's not like I am using it for running high-end simulators. It is a budget gaming machine, and it runs well as that. Also, I could never afford the video card I want down deep in my heart... (MSI GeForce GTX 1080 8GB DirectX costs $1,100!) But a BSEL modded Core 2 Quad is the way I hope to go; 3 GHz clock speed, 1333 fsb, and only like $10.