Im looking at a dell optiplex 755 is it worth buying to rebuild into a better pc

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tsnor

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william p

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Zotac GTX1050 Mini $112 or Zotac GTX1050Ti 4GB for about $30 more.
Q9650 $50, Q9550 $25
8GB DDR2 800 Dell RAM $30
https://www.ebay.com/itm/USA-8GB-KIT-4X2GB-DDR2-800MHz-Memory-For-Dell-OptiPlex-740-745-755-760-760-960/272899691795?epid=2178322282&hash=item3f8a16d513:g:aRAAAOSwTJpZlAbj
heatpipe cooler upgrade $10 https://www.ebay.com/p/Dell-Optiplex-775-Heat-Pipe-Heatsink-PN-D9729/1903483749?thm=3000
Expansion slot blower $5 for behind GPU
Do the math.
What the hell 128GB SSD $50
an optiplex 780 is alittle faster due to DDR3 memory but you might have to pay an extra $10 to get your hands on one. (needs T9303 cooler though)
 
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thesnowleopard782

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So, I've upgraded my 755. I've got the GTX 1050ti LP from MSI, and the q6600. I had to do a little bit of, handy-work with the back mountings as the 1050 was dual slot but the back plate didn't have room for the dual slot with the way the PCIe was positioned on the motherboard. Also, the MSI 1050 will cause some interference with the CPU shroud. The shroud I have was ever so slightly in the way and I had to make a few adjustments there. So if you're into doing a little bit of crafty work and spending $150-$300 for a somewhat stable gaming PC, this will do. I have had a few crashes, mostly software crashes, like when running World of Warships I run out of virtual memory and the program has to close out. But aside from that I've only had one 'fatal' error where the PC just re-booted and told me it had an error and was forced to restart. I know almost for a fact that my motherboard is somewhat faulty, it gives me the buzzer like theres an issue with ram when I turn it on (sometimes) re-arranging the ram does nothing to help this. And I also know some of the circuits stay powered even after shutdown. (not sure if thats a malfunction or not)

So in short. No, this PC sucks ass, big time. In the long run, this will probably do what I need for another year or longer if I'm real lucky. I spent about $250 on it and it seems to be working fine. It's a risk, but a risk you should only entertain for so long, after awhile these old PC's will have literally no ability in the fast changing world of hardware.
 
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jaslion

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Watch the language. They are very strict about it here. Also for 250 you could've easily gotten a first gen i5 or even second gen i5 pc with the gtx 1050. I spent 325 and have a 2600k and gtx 970 and 16gb of ram after a bti of searching. Just never get any core 2 or phenom machine today anymore since they are very outdated and only usefull for basic tasks.
 
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william p

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The Q6600 was old when that computer was built. The Q6600 @ 2.4GHz is a 23- 24% CPU. With a tapemod overclock to 3GHz it's 36%. Q9450, Q9505S and Q9550 are faster 38-39%. The money on the GPU isn't wasted. It can move forward. You chose a 1066FSB 2.4GHz CPU when the options went up to 3GHz 1333 fsb. . The only slower 4 core CPU is the Q6400. I am finding the 4GB GPU and 8GB RAM IS a tight fit and background programs need to be turned off for gaming. Maybe a gaming user profile. The Zotac Mini I referred you to drops right in with no mods. It's the only card that does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGJK_8DbI3o
 
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thesnowleopard782

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Absolutely. But compared to what I was running before (E7500 2.93Ghz, Asus GTX 7200) the performance boost is insane. From having trouble running anything with 3D rendering to now being able to play World of Warships at medium detail is astounding to me. However, some normal processes that use only one core may be a bit slower but the rendering and video possibilities are tenfold compared to what they used to be. Plus I paid $9 for the processor and got the GTX on a deal for $99 because of the holidays, so $280-$290 for a gaming rig is not that mad to me.
 
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william p

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The $9 CPU might have much more in it. There were 2 different Q6600. SL9UM, and SLACR ( marked on chip). The newer SLACR overclocks better and usually can run 3GHz with a piece of tape.
I paid $20 for my Opti 380, $20 for the Q9505S CPU and had the 8GB DDR3 RAM sitting around. $140 for the 1050Ti. $40 for ssd.So $260 for an entry level 1080P machine. The only problem has been low minimum frame rates if I don't turn off the browser and other background programs to save RAM when stressing the GPU.
if you go down this list and see the Q6600 machines. Some of them are in the mid 20% CPU score, many are in the mid 30% CPU scores, they all have a 3GHz mod if you look in the individual specs.
http://www.userbenchmark.com/System/Dell-OptiPlex-755/3939
 
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thesnowleopard782

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Yeah, something about taking a lead pen along the back face of the CPU, do you know how to do this? Cause I could really use the extra performance. Windows movie maker keeps crashng, Shotcut was choppy and cut out and all the other working ones cost money to remove watermarks. I'm thinking I'm gonna have to either buy one or figure out how to overclock this CPU which I did not intend to do until I had a backup rig.
 
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william p

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No lead pencil tricks. There was a Youtube I linked to above that showed how to do this. You cut a tiny piece of packing tape just big enough to cover one metal pad on the CPU 1/16" or so. With the CPU on it's back, and the cutouts towards you tape over the pin just above the RH cutout. This tells the MB that a 1333fsb cpu is installed. So instead of 9x266fsb 2400mhz, you get 9x333fsb 3000mhz. Odds are much better if you have the SLACR chip. But that's the only reason to run one of those CPUs any more. BTW the E7500 is a candidate for this mod also going 3.66GHz if you can use single thread performance. There were some complex methods that do the same thing with electrical traces from pin to pin, but the tape mod produces the same result.
What cooler are you using? All the 2 cores came with an aluminum finned chunk. The D9729 heatpipe cooler from the 4 cores should be used at this level of performance. it's an old Pentium 4/D part so not hard to find, or expensive. The P8353 copper based cooler is sufficient also.
https://www.ebay.com/p/Dell-Optiplex-775-Heat-Pipe-Heatsink-PN-D9729/1903483749
 
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thesnowleopard782

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I'm more than 100% sure that I have the stock heat sync. Do you think that could be causing the blue screens I've been getting? Also, I've been monitoring my CPU and how much the computer is using it, and it's honestly being used quite heavily even on simple tasks. I didn't check this on the dual core but I don't think this should come at a surprise.

 
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william p

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My 2.83 GHz Q9505S 65W hits 45% CPU running Valley benchmark. 1 core hits 80% and the others 25-30%. The Optiplexes all can run 3GHz 4 cores one way or another, a couple of them a bit more than that. Q9650 is what almost all of them can run. Here's the CPU hierarchy chart.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html
The top 5 tiers are considered still relevant. A good overclock can raise a CPU about 1 tier. The Q6600 is tier 6, the Q9650 is tier 4. The rest are in between. The Q6600 wasn't even the top CPU for the Optiplex 745. It had the 2.66 Q6700, and unofficially even the 2.93 Ghz QX6800. It's just about the oldest 4 core there is.
As far as BSODs go look at the capacitors on the MB. Swollen, bulging or staining in the grooves on top mean they're failing. It's possible someone sold you a bad MB.
 
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thesnowleopard782

thesnowleopard782

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Nov 28, 2017
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It is possible that my mobo is bad, but luckily I have like six of these 755's so if one messes up I've got a few to work with. I tried reloading windows onto my pc to see if it helped with the crashes and now the keyboard and mouse drivers aren't registering. I can't really get into this PC, do you know anything about troubleshooting this or am I better off throwing the e7500 on a new mobo and forgetting about upgrading? Maybe throw the 1050 on a newer mobo and building up something else?
 
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william p

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That's the nice thing about the 1050 it's worth putting on something newer. I'm used to advising people who already have a running Optiplex that they want to upgrade. Starting from scratch with an unknown system is a different situation I guess. I paid $20 for my Opti 380. It's working OK for me. I intend to do a Xeon swap later to 3.33GHz so it should be fun. But that's not the experience you're having. I can understand your frustration. It's not too bad when it goes according to plan, but when it doesn't, it will be a lot of work for what will in the end be a limited result.
 
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thesnowleopard782

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Right, I got the HDD onto another motherboard, no luck. I don't think this is a motherboard issue as when I load windows the keyboard and mouse still cut out. So I'm looking for the windows disk right now. I'll keep you updated as we work our way through. If we get to windows then we're back at square one, update bios we try the E7500 instead of the e6550 or whatever is in there right now. Then we move to the quad. I don't think I'm going to try getting the GPU on there, save that for the GA-F2A88XM-D3H motherboard and we're never going back. You know anything about these mobo's?

Update:
did a system test, came back saying it did find issues in the drivers concerning keyboard and mouse.

Update:
Ran a CD install of windows. Got her running again. I was able to do some on board diagnostics to discover any hardware issues, there were none. Both the mobos, all the ram, both GPU's, all the HDD's and all the processors survived through the two desktops I was working on. Kinda a miracle at this point. I seem to have the q6600 with stock thermal sync running between 44-50c, so maybe a little thermal throttling. Over all. Don't buy these things.
 
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