Dell Optiplex GX280 Upgrade Question

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dave8624

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I have a Dell GX280, that I want to turn into a home server, it currently has a P4 2.80, running on a Intel 915P/915G (according to CPU-Z). My question is, will a P4 3.4ghz, be compatible with this board? Also, I know this should go into the memory forum, but since I have this post, will this machine handle 4gb of ram? or rather 3.5gb with 32bit limitation.

Thanks in advanced.

- Dave
 
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hi..me to have a gx280 and i want to know if it is possible to put a 8800 gts video card on it...i know i have a problem with power but i think i can resolve it...what i don`t know is if my motherboard will suport 8800 gts...the card have a 2.0 psi expres interface and i want to know if will be suported by motherboard...almost forgot it is a tower edition

thanks
 

clrwk85

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I have Optiplex GX280 SFF (that means super small frame, matx desktop) with 160 Watt factory PSU. I upgarded cpu to pentium 4 650 (3,4 GHz, 64bit) 4GB ddr2 800MHz RAM and actualy seceond ATI graphic cards. If you find pentium 6x1 processor then its better cuz its less power consumpting due to 65nm technology (the one I have is 90nm and costs me 84 W of this insufficent power).

Graphic cards I tried are Radeon x1550 (or x1300, there is no difference) and radeon 2400 hd that burned today (probably due to fan problem, I got it with damaged power connector and it didn`t circulated - after a long hour of playing Fallout 3 it run down and definitly wont stand up). Im going to try Radeon 3450 or 4550 as soon as I put my hands on it.

Finally, anserwing your question, it can support every S775 Pentium 4 / Celereon, Celereon D

My question is, if there is possibility to change PSU to better one (250 Watt would be OK) and if GX280 can handle mentioned cards (ATI 3450 or 4550) ??
 
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Hey The GX280 SFF with the ddr 2 handles up to 4 gigs I'm running 4 gigs of memory in it just having was wondering what the highest chipset and what the chipset it'll take but yes the GX280 SFF will take the 4gigs how ever the windows xp I'm running won't see past 3 gigs. OOPS. I don't plan on running 64 on it anytime soon since I don't plan on using it with 64bit to run shoutcast. The board does see 4 gigs I'm happy.
 

joefriday

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Way to go with the necro posts gentlemen. The Engrish is a nice touch too.

For anyone that may read this thread in the future. The GX280 WILL NOT support the 6x1 series of P4. Only the 5xx and 6x0 Prescotts work.

Good day.
 

latin1

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hi all new user here. i have a dell gx280 with a 2.8 ht p4. i just got a geforce 7300gs with 256ram and i have 512 mb on board. i tried playing battlefield 2 with new card and i get terrible lag and graphics seem choppy. my question is do i need more ram to be able to play and will that video card require more power than the 250 watt supply that came with this dell?
 

wisc7

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no choppy performance is usually because your system isn't powerful enough, (not the powersupply)
you probably need more ram and a more powerful graphics card.
as far as ram goes anything less than 1 gig (2 gig recommended) is going to struggle with everything. with ram so cheap its highly recommended.

go and get yourself a decent card. the SFF will take a low profile 9400gs or 3450, the 3450 has the slight performance advantage, but not by much. both cards are dirt cheap.

i modded my sff by drilling (hole saw) into the top and putting an 80mm fan on top of the graphics card as i fried my last PC due to the amount of heat in there. graphics card was getting to 100*+ you couldn't touch the power supply, with the extra fan all is good., just make sure you have enough cooling if you do have a sff as it will burn out. typically when your over heating you'll get artifacts on the screen. typically when you don't have enough power you will get crashes and reboots.
 
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Hi, a newb here... Anyone knows about (or better yet tried) putting a 3.8GHz P4 670 into a GX280 SFF?

TIA
 

wisc7

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should do.
here is the CPU stats:

http://www.dealtime.co.uk/xPF-Intel-PENTIUM-670-3-8GHZ-SKT775-CHIP

the 915 is in the compatible chip sets. (which the gx280sff uses)

the GX280 works fine with my 640 (3.2ghz) which is the same family of CPUs

The 915s will not support dual CPU's (hyperthreading is fine)

the things id be worried about is the power supplies in the Dells are very weak. (the sff have 180 watts) the desktop is around 210 but is different to the SFF.
and heat, that CPU is gonna put it out so when changing over don't forget to put cpu goop in don't just trust whats on there!)

although for the amount your spending on the CPU better to just go out and get a core 2 duo system! (unless of course you have one lying around) the cpu will probably cost less, but you will need a new motherboard and case. probably wouldn't cost that much extra and would run rings around the P4.
or just get a second hand core2 duo system, will cost less than the 670

and you get a dual core CPU instead of just hyperthreading.

your really only flogging a dead horse spending that amount of money on it.
 
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Thanks, Wisc! I just picked up two 670's from fee-bay for $100 incl S&H. The price was too tempting to pass up, lol! I tried these gx280's with a 3.0 P4 630 (successfully) and a 3.2 Celeron D 352 (orange light, no POST, not sure if BIOS update would help). The 630 made a very noticeable difference comparing to the non-HT 2.8GHz CPU's that came from Dell. I figured that I should be able to recover about $40 for the old CPU's, so the net cost would be about $60 for two of them.

The weak PSU is definitely a concern especially since I also have Radeon x1300 cards in them. Heat will be a factor too - already hear those fans spinning like jets!
 

wisc7

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yeah more than likely you haven't go the paste on right, makes a huge difference. fans should be fairly quite under no to low load.
you can use a hole saw and put a fan on top of the graphics card too. i can show a pic if you like of how i did mine.
it cools down the power supply as well which your gonna want if your pumping more juice though it too.

have you got one bank or two of RAM?
two banks will also suck down more power as well.

Celeron D won't work due to dual core. no dual cores work on the 915.
 
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they are actually reasonably quiet under light load... I was referring to whirring noise under full load. Keep in mind that the SFF's have one only fan cooling the CPU and double as an exhaust fan.

The video cards actually have fans, so they s/b OK as far as temps go... Would like to see the pix anyway for another system.

Have 2 x 1GB DDR2.

Thanks again!
 

wisc7

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I put a layer of perspex on the whole thing, did a dodgy job of cutting the back half with a angle grinder.

been meaning to clean it up with a jigsaw but as its functional, haven't gotten around to it.

The power cable for the fan should really go though the perspex but it goes around through the side.

I have the fan blowing into the case so it forces more air though the power supply and out the computer, it also blows it over the graphics card, which is overclocked 200mhz (to 650 MHZ) and the memory is overclocked 100mhz (to 500Mhz)

fans.JPG
 

clrwk85

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Hi!

Right now i`m using this Optiplex with Pentium 4 650 (3,4GHz HT), 4GB of RAM and 512MB ATI Radeon HD4550 GPU. It works just great, no lags with Vista, new games are runing great too (Assasins Creed on max details with AA turned off, Prince of Persia also, both in max resolution 1440x900). I think that these are the maxests :) upgardes on that platform, maybe OC is possible but as I read DELL made it impossible due to something on they OEM motherboard. Any idea?
 
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Hi,
I have a big problem with this CPU - 3,6 Ghz, it does not work with gx280 :??: , so i have a question - will only max. 3,4 Ghz Pentium 4 be work in this dell? and will be supported by motherboard - Intel i915G?
 

clrwk85

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What type of CPU you have? Somebody here said that i915G can`t support Pentium 4 6x1. And other thing is that 6x0 3,6 GHz CPU takes 120 Watts of power, I think that it is too much for GX280 PSU. Thats why I decided to put 3,4 GHz.

BTW one core cpu sucks, pzdr :)
 
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..hm so now i have pentium 4 - 520 (2,8 Ghz) in my Optiplex GX280 but the procesor 3,6 which i want to use - it`s pentium 4 560J so it is 5xx series of pentium 4, so in my opinion it should work but it doesnt :(
clrwk85 - You have Dell Gx280 right? with Pentium 4 - 3,4 ?what type of this CPU is?(which You use)? and it works good? and motherboard and bios accepted this pentium? so i try with less frequency pentium like 3,4 or 3,2 probably its problem with PSU in gx280...i think..
Thanks! ;)
 

wisc7

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try the cpu in another machine, the cpu may be faulty, on the intel site the chip is supported however power may be an issuw
 
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Ok i must try this CPU on another computer, but of course chip is supported, Cpu may be faulty, and i have a question is it possible that factory PSU - 160W decides that this CPU doesnt work?, because CPU consumes too much power? Because if i turn on computer, the warning appears at once like this: "Alert! Incompatible processor detected! System halted!" ant then system doesnt work, not boot, but when i put my "primary" CPU (2,8) , it work good without some problems etc..
 
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Ok i must try this CPU on another computer, but of course chip is supported, Cpu may be faulty, and i have a question is it possible that factory PSU - 160W decides that this CPU doesnt work?, because CPU consumes too much power? Because if i turn on computer, the warning appears at once like this: "Alert! Incompatible processor detected! System halted!" and then system doesnt work, not boot, but when i put my "primary" CPU (2,8) , it work good without some problems etc..
 
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I found some infos about Optiplex GX280 on dell.com..
here it`s link:

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/spec_optix_gx280_en.pdf



".. Processor: Intel 915G Express Chipset, Intel Pentium 4 processor with 800 Mhz front side bus and Hyper-Threading and 1 Mb L2 Cache or Celeron D processor with 533 Mhz front side bus and 256K L2 Cache.."


So this specyfication shows clearly that in GX 280 is possible installation of Pentium 4 proccesor with 800 Bus Speed + HT + 1 Mb Cache and this computer with i915G motherboard are supported this family of Intel Processor, and i think that 6xx model with 2 Mb L2 cache shouldnt work with this machine according this dell`s informations on this webside...so the best model of intel processors wil be 5xx but i have Pentium 560 and it doesnt work.. no idea.. :(

 

wisc7

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so you are getting a warning message saying its incompatible?

regardless, it still leaves a faulty chip and not enough power as possible causes.
(although id expect it not to boot at all if these where the causes)

so these might not be the problem.

the motherboard may just not support that chip. try widen your search to see if anyone else who has the 915 chip has trouble with that CPU.

will be interested to see how your chip works in other PCs thats the first thing id do.
 
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