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Dell Sleeper?
Hello There,
I was wondering if I could take old dell Desktops from say 1998 up to 2006 (Like the older Dell Dimension and Dell Dimension XPS) series of PCS and convert them into sleeper pcs that are able to handle more challenging tasks, but with that there does come problems when doing so.....
So is it really worth it? To me yes othere may disagree, but whatever it's their choosing....
And also i want help people dispose of there old PCs/Laptops the right way.... and don't worry if they did leave any information on the old HDD, I won't do anything wrong, once I get one I will ither remove the HDD or Dban whatever still lies on the ol drive so no information gets exposed or whatever.....
Thanks N1nja
DELL-Chris M
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May 31st, 2017 08:00
In theory, any system can be formatted and put back into service with additional memory, larger storage, better video cards, etc. But the question to you, is it really worth doing so financially? For me no. I simply format the hard disk drives and gift the older systems to Goodwill.
N1njaDestr0yer
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May 31st, 2017 13:00
what i meant was if the computer was trashed picked or someone doesn't need it any more...
Scratch101
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June 3rd, 2017 20:00
I guess it depends on how much of a sleeper you're looking for. I don't think you'll find any PC from 1998 that will run well enough to really keep up with things today. On the other hand, you can get some computers from 2006 that will run in a modern environment. I'm running a Dimension E520 from 2006 that originally had a painfully slow Pentium D and 2GB of RAM. It wasn't free, though...it was $15. It's currently running a QX6800 Extreme and 6GB of RAM (it can run 8GB) . I've seen Dimension E520s that were running P4s so going to a quad core is quite a jump in performance. I've heard that they can be overclocked as well but I've never bothered. That's one of the best examples that I know of for improving performance with simple upgrades. Many (probably most) boards are locked to CPUs that have a more limited range of performance than that, though.
I've taken trashed/unwanted laptops and desktops and put them into service, though if you can't upgrade to at least a dual core CPU it's hardly worth spending much time or money on in my opinion. That said people trash lots of things that are extremely useful. My current primary laptop is one that I pulled from the trash. It's running an i7 with 16GB of RAM (that's what it had when it was thrown away). People are nuts and if you keep looking you may get lucky too. Be aware though, some older computers may need work. My E520 had 4 capacitors that needed replacing on the motherboard.
N1njaDestr0yer
48 Posts
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June 3rd, 2017 21:00
Ah right, but what I was say was to gut everything out of the old system and place the new stuff into the old case.... also I have some old Dell Dimension PCS (the gred and black ones) but I was confused on how to remove the I/O Shield and the fan from a faceless Dell and two clam-shell Dells, the clam-shell had an intagraded I/O Shield and I ran into and issue while trying to remove it, then I thought I could just take one of those round hack saws and cut out the i/o shield.....