It's an old computer. Best to just throw it away and save your money for a new computer.
Any Dell older than 6 months should be discarded. Dell has great deals on new and refurb computers that are only a month old. You'll get a computer that's good for 6 months ... maybe even a year or more!
My aunt has this USFF desktop machine running under Windows 10. It does not so bad with 8 GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo processor for basic surf, Microsoft Office work and email.I upgraded its original RAM configuration from 2x1 GB to 2x4 GB. Speed is decent under Windows 10 for such an old machine that was bought more than 10 years ago.
RAM specs: 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333MHz. It works with an old BIOS version A7 but it would be a good idea to update to the last version A15.
But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 780 USFF with 8 GB RAM, a core-i5 processor and a fast Samsung SSD. All this for about 200 Euros.
My mistake: "But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 780 USFF with 8 GB RAM". I didn't find a way neither to edit my yesterday's post nor to quote it. By the way, I wanted to say: "But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 9020 USFF with 8 GB RAM".
In case someone reported here that he would be interested in boosting such an old Optiplex 780 PC, I would visit my aunt and run CPU-Z utility to grab technical details on these two 4GB RAM sticks that still run smoothly in dual channel mode. I can't even remember the manufacturer, it was en late 2016. I checked that now you can get this 2x4 GB RAM upgrade on eBay for about 40 Euros
Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. I can confirm it worked with 2x4GB korean cards bought from Amazon. I also updated my BIOS and put in an SSD. It works remarkably well for an old machine. The only downside is the graphics card which is not good and can't be upgraded. But I play older games like NFS: Hot Pursuit 2, Counterstrike, and PS1 emulator games. Windows 10 runs perfectly on it. The best part is that this computer was free
It's 2022 and I found a Dell Optiplex 780 sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I picked it up, looked around, yelled is this anyones computer, and then walked off with it. Yes, you can run Windows 10 on it, but don't do it. Run Win 7 or 8 if you have to, but there's a better option. I personally loaded Ubuntu Linux 20.xx on it and am going to use it as my OpenAI GPT3 playground. Currently it only has 4gb of ram but gonna kick it up to 16gb ram as soon as i can. I'm going to use it as a general build machine for my C programming, a back up webserver for my sites so i can have a running back up for back up and development purposes. It's an old machine, but this is exactly what Linux does to old computers, it makes them usable again.
This is entirely false because I’ve been working on this OptiPlex 780 USFF with 6GB of DDR3 ram, I highly recommend you to upgrade cause It seriously makes a huge difference in terms of performance and reliability. I only recommend you this if you are not having enough finance to spend on a complete separate setup.
Mary G
4 Operator
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20.1K Posts
0
September 24th, 2020 12:00
Service Manual says 4 slots on the SFF with a max of 4 gb in each. = 16gb Open it up to check.
Alex_Ander
1 Rookie
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4 Posts
0
September 25th, 2020 08:00
It"s the ultra small form with only 2 slots inside. I was wondering if each slot will accept more than 2GB.
donm4599x
2 Intern
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478 Posts
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September 25th, 2020 19:00
It's an old computer. Best to just throw it away and save your money for a new computer.
Any Dell older than 6 months should be discarded. Dell has great deals on new and refurb computers that are only a month old. You'll get a computer that's good for 6 months ... maybe even a year or more!
Alex_Ander
1 Rookie
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4 Posts
1
September 25th, 2020 20:00
Well I got it for free. I only use it for basic desktop apps and old games. It's not worth it for me to buy a new one when ram is so cheap these days.
Peter_Pan_7
1 Rookie
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30 Posts
0
May 8th, 2021 14:00
My aunt has this USFF desktop machine running under Windows 10. It does not so bad with 8 GB RAM and a Core 2 Duo processor for basic surf, Microsoft Office work and email.I upgraded its original RAM configuration from 2x1 GB to 2x4 GB. Speed is decent under Windows 10 for such an old machine that was bought more than 10 years ago.
RAM specs: 4GB DDR3 PC3-10600 1333MHz. It works with an old BIOS version A7 but it would be a good idea to update to the last version A15.
But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 780 USFF with 8 GB RAM, a core-i5 processor and a fast Samsung SSD. All this for about 200 Euros.
speedstep
9 Legend
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47K Posts
0
May 8th, 2021 19:00
usff can do 8 gig max with very specific ram
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AAL6KHG
Peter_Pan_7
1 Rookie
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30 Posts
0
May 9th, 2021 01:00
My mistake: "But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 780 USFF with 8 GB RAM". I didn't find a way neither to edit my yesterday's post nor to quote it. By the way, I wanted to say: "But it's time to move ten years later! As she likes the USFF form factor, I will buy her a cheap Dell Optiplex 9020 USFF with 8 GB RAM".
Peter_Pan_7
1 Rookie
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30 Posts
0
May 9th, 2021 01:00
In case someone reported here that he would be interested in boosting such an old Optiplex 780 PC, I would visit my aunt and run CPU-Z utility to grab technical details on these two 4GB RAM sticks that still run smoothly in dual channel mode. I can't even remember the manufacturer, it was en late 2016. I checked that now you can get this 2x4 GB RAM upgrade on eBay for about 40 Euros
Alex_Ander
1 Rookie
•
4 Posts
1
May 9th, 2021 02:00
Hey everyone, thanks for the replies. I can confirm it worked with 2x4GB korean cards bought from Amazon. I also updated my BIOS and put in an SSD. It works remarkably well for an old machine. The only downside is the graphics card which is not good and can't be upgraded. But I play older games like NFS: Hot Pursuit 2, Counterstrike, and PS1 emulator games. Windows 10 runs perfectly on it. The best part is that this computer was free
fbr1
1 Rookie
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2 Posts
1
November 5th, 2022 04:00
It's 2022 and I found a Dell Optiplex 780 sitting in the middle of the sidewalk. I picked it up, looked around, yelled is this anyones computer, and then walked off with it. Yes, you can run Windows 10 on it, but don't do it. Run Win 7 or 8 if you have to, but there's a better option. I personally loaded Ubuntu Linux 20.xx on it and am going to use it as my OpenAI GPT3 playground. Currently it only has 4gb of ram but gonna kick it up to 16gb ram as soon as i can. I'm going to use it as a general build machine for my C programming, a back up webserver for my sites so i can have a running back up for back up and development purposes. It's an old machine, but this is exactly what Linux does to old computers, it makes them usable again.
Spondon
1 Message
0
December 7th, 2023 10:41
Can I use a single 8GB ram??
user_4ab17e
1 Rookie
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2 Posts
0
March 31st, 2026 06:54
This is entirely false because I’ve been working on this OptiPlex 780 USFF with 6GB of DDR3 ram, I highly recommend you to upgrade cause It seriously makes a huge difference in terms of performance and reliability. I only recommend you this if you are not having enough finance to spend on a complete separate setup.