3 year old Dell, Good? Bad? Ugly??

[BriTer]

Have access to a couple of 3 year old Dell desktops. No idea as to model
What cpu speed might I expect? I'm told anywhere from 700mhz to duo core.
Anything good to say about them??

[SpaceAddict]

It should be faster than that around 3 gig. But you really need the model to know for sure.

[BriTer]

It should be faster than that around 3 gig. But you really need the model to know for sure.

That fast?
I'll know more this week, thanks!

[sheepy]

Have access to a couple of 3 year old Dell desktops. No idea as to model
What cpu speed might I expect? I'm told anywhere from 700mhz to duo core.
Anything good to say about them??

Defenitly not duo core but....

...Start --->>>> My Computer ---->>>> View System Infromation should answer all your inquiries.

[SpaceAddict]

Well I searched and a 6 year old dell had a 3 gigahertz Pentium 4 chip. But you need the model cause they all make Pintos.

[LoneWolf_53]

Dell have been very reliable units from my experiences and although I only tinker on about five of them they run 24/7/365 at 100% CPU capacity which you can't do any more than.

[___]

Dell is very proprietary, so upgrading after the fact could be a real challenge. Make sure they have what you want to begin with to be safe unless you really like tinkering.....

If they do what you want and the price is right no reason not to go ahead.

[SpaceAddict]

Keep them clean. They burn up occasionally and there not really worth looking for parts for. There very proprietary so nothing other than Dell parts usually will work with them.

[BriTer]

Keep them clean. They burn up occasionally and there not really worth looking for parts for. There very proprietary so nothing other than Dell parts usually will work with them.

Lovely

[SpaceAddict]

Just like any other computer. If you let them fill up with dust the fans will eventually quit and it will overheat and die. With a Dell that is a big problem. Parts are hard to come by. I know of at least two buddies of mine had them and when that happened they could not get parts for a reasonable amount of cash so they where scrapped to fix other machines, Dell's that where waiting for parts. Just keep it clean and it will run forever. If a fan starts making noise change it.

[LoneWolf_53]

Dell isn't nearly as "proprietary" as most of the other offerings out there like Compaq for example.

Dell has an odd power supply but even those can be obtained from after market manufacturers as long as you specify what it's for.

Where they do cut corners is by leaving out subtle little things on motherboards like temp sensors and such that are present on regular boards but that wouldn't affect the average Joe User.

That's more of an issue for someone tinkering and into overclocking.

As with anything you get what you pay for but for my money if it weren't for the fact that I build my own machines I'd go with Dell as it's a good dollar for dollar value.

Most parts like fans, drives, cables, etc you can get locally at Wytek.

As far as overheating goes I completely disagree with SpaceAddict since Dell even goes so far as to use a shroud to direct cool air toward the CPU and frankly every PC needs to be kept clean or you risk owning a big paper weight.

[BriTer]

Okay, seems the shop techie that told me 'as low as 700mghz' was wrong.
1 ghz came out in 2000 and also Pentium D in something like 2003-4

I don't expect duo core but I'm told 2.8ghz isn't unreasonable to expect.
We'll see this week
LoneWolf I didn't know that Dell had the shroud in all their computers. My old server is like that. Dual processor and runs cool as a cucumber.

[dsldriver]

I have never found a Dell to be all that hard to upgrade or find parts for. Compaq on the other hand is an evil word that should never be used in conjunction with computers.

I have a 5 year old Dell laptop. Started to have sound and minor video issues, I found another machine on Ebay and made one good machine out of the two. I would say that they hold up quite well.