Worth the upgrade from an e6700 to a q6700 on an optiplex 745?

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sportscrazed2

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Apr 5, 2012
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I have an old optiplex 745 with a c2d e6700,8gb ddr2-800,xfx radeon hd-5450,and 80gb intel ssd. The system runs the xubuntu linux distribution beautifully. Maybe once a month I'll encode a 5gb dvd rip down to 2gb or so. That is the most intensive thing I do on the computer otherwise it's just chrome and maybe converting a book in calibre. A) Would it be worth $40 or so to upgrade the cpu for the occasional handbrake work? And B) would it even work? I'm leaning more towards just buying movies on google play instead of encoding dvds. Oh I have no desire to buy a new psu for the system or a new heatsink. It either drops right in or I don't bother
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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sportscrazed2,

Checking Passmark Performance Test baselines, the highest rated Optiplex 745's are using:

Q6700, Q6600, Q6600, Q6600, QX6800, E6600 > the "Q" is for quad- core and a QX is a Core2 Extreme

1. Handbrake is multi-threaded so the quad core would accelerate the encoding.

2. I'm reasonably sure that your system has the plain Aluminum heatsink that going to a quad core would require the uprated Steel /Copper one. The PSU - I think these were 275W (?) would be marginal but probably acceptable if the video card is not too electron-hungry. I think the quad core ones would have a 305 or 325W.

Overall, you might consider changing the 745 to 760 with a quad core in it already, clone the HD and then sell the 745:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Optiplex-760-MT-Intel-Core-2-Quad-Q8400-2-66ghz-2gb-RAM-/141452733731?hash=item20ef3d6d23

> a completed listing for a 760 with a 2.66 Core2 Quad, 2GB RAM sold for $41 + $22 shipping- not far off your original budget and medium fuss factor- the disk cloning.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

HP z420 (E5-1620 qc @ 3.6/ 3.8, 24GB ECC 1600, Quadro K2200 (4GB), Intel 730 480GB / WD Black 1TB > Win 7 Pro 64)

Dell Precision T5500 (Xeon X5680 6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6, 24GB ECC 1333, Quadro 4000 (2GB), Samsung 850 250GB / WD RE4 1TB > Win 7 Pro 64

 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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sportscrazed2,

Just today I cloned the drive from my Precision T5400 to it's replcacement T5500 and using EaseUS ToDo Workstation "Recover to Dissimilar Systems" it didn't make a peep. I'm not sure how Linux addresses the chipset drivers and drive controller drivers, etc, but the Optiplex 745 and 760, like the T5400 and T5500, are extremely similar. As they use the same CPU's, the chipsets may be the same or the 760 may go one step faster with the memory- 800 instead of 667- that kind of thing. Those details are often the reason for Dell model changes. Drivers related to motherboard components can be downloaded from Dell.com support drivers and downloads.

If you do look into 760's, you might also venture into the wonderful world of 780's- another step more modern- some 3+ GHz CPU's and RAM. The 780's are usually noticeably more than 760's but are sometimes sold for very little and a good one may be worth stretching a little bit for- $100 instead of $40. In either case, try for the largest format case- better air circulation, sometimes larger power supplies, and you can have a fatter GPU if you want.

Cheers,

BamibBoom
 
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sportscrazed2

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I havent dealt with drivers for years in Linux. The drivers are automatically included with system for a vast majority of hardware. Only thing driver related you might want to do is switch to proprietary version of driver which is as simple checking the check box and rebooting. It might be an issue changing brand of video card but I've never bothered to find out
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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mastercoin,

Thanks for the update- good choice. You might like to run the Passmark Performance Test on your current system, the new system if it's working when it arrives, and then after upgrades.

And best of luck with it,

BambiBoom

 
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