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Is the Dell Optiplex 780 mt with the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 still good in 2020?
I'm sure people may laugh at my computer because it's almost 10 years old ( May 2010 stamped on the internal case) and still going strong and runs good. It has been upgraded as needed I have timed the boot times to be about 8 seconds. Tried to put better memory in this computer and tried 3 different brands and none worked but was able to get more of the stock memory(two more sticks with matching model numbers on Ebay) giving the computer 16GB but only 15GB is usable it's showing 1GB as being hardware reserved but with 8GB installed it didn't have any in reserve anyone know how to change that? I never come close to the 15GB(most I use is less then 35% of 15GB) so it's okay if it can't be changed. This is still a good working computer for it's age but giving it's age should I plan to buy another one just in case? I have been told many times over the years most computers will only get 6 to 7 years max before the motherboards start to fail is that true? I'm on low income and buying a new computer would take sometime should I start saving? The motherboard on this computer looks like new I see nothing wrong with it.( I do all my own computer work and upgrades myself)
Dell Optiplex 780 MT (BIOS version A15)
Windows 10 Professional
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz 12MB Cache 1333MHz FSB
16GB DDR3 memory
Nvidia Geforce GT 710 1gb video card
1TB Samsung SSD (Boot drive)
Western Digital Blue 4TB hard drive(Data drive)
ASUS 24X DVD burner
Rosewill ARC Series 450W power supply
D-Link AC1200 PCIe wireless card
Computer looks like new as seen here
bradthetechnut
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February 16th, 2020 17:00
Hi @AdamG1982,
It sounds like you kept your 780 quite relevant. Yours may be a case of if it ain't broke, no need to fix it.
Optiplex's are business machines that are made to last. It's one of reasons some people make gaming machines off of them. I have a 755 for sale that still runs strong. It's 12 yrs. old and boots in 17 sec. off an SSD.
It doesn't hurt to start saving for a newer refurb just in case. If you sell your 780, it's likely you won't get out of it what you put into it. Case in point my 755. Currently for sale for $98* for 1.5 months. I spent $96 on it in 2016 and put another $100 into it over time. But since I kept some of my hardware and put it in my 7010, I could probably knock $50 off of that. *And shipping isn't cheap for somebody that isn't a volume shipper with deep discounts.
Nephew of mine sold his gaming computer worth $1000's. He didn't get out of it what he put into it either.
Hopefully this helps.
Oh yah, as for some RAM being reserved for system operation or etc. - Nothing can be done about that.
Your 780 sounds like a strong runner yet.
donm4599x
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February 16th, 2020 17:00
If it works well for the things you use it for, then is still good.
I'm using an 8 year old machine, and I have another that is 20 years old and still works fine for most things.
If you want something newer, consider refurbs. They are much cheaper than brand new.
bradthetechnut
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February 16th, 2020 18:00
Adding to what donm4599x said - Current Optiplex's are very expensive; but back up a generation or 2, the refurbs are quite reasonable and more hardware can be added.
AdamG1982
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February 16th, 2020 19:00
I was looking at a Dell Optiplex 9020 Tower with Intel Core i7 4770 for about $500 and a Dell Optiplex 7020 Tower with Intel Core i5 4570 about $400 both are refurbished and I see others like these two that are 3 gen i5 or i7's around the same price range $300 to $600 depending in hardware installed. I have some memory that's designed for the 4th gen i series that should work( two kits of 8GB) it won't work on the one I have now won't post(light 2 and 4 light up and won't post). I guess memory for the newer i series won't work on the Core 2 Quads The only problem I ran into was only a minor one the drivers Windows 10 used for the onboard sound is buggy at times making me have to uninstall the drivers then reinstall after a restart. Only had that problem once or twice so far. This is the first Dell I ever owned I was always warned to stay away from them but I have to say I'm happy with this computer so far. It came with a 500GB hard driver with about 33.000 power on hours but was newer then the computer so it wasn't the stock drive. So unsure how many hours this computer got but it's working fine no real problems yet and also the temps seem very good the CPU runs around 33C to 38C idle and never hits over 60C when maxed out but I find maxing out the Q9550 isn't easy no matter what I'm doing the avg usage seems to be around 15% to 25% at the most even when I'm converting 1080HD videos off Youtube the cpu never goes past 40% used I was very shocked but what I am reading online about the Q9550 it's the top of the line of the Core 2 Quads with the Q9650 being only 3% faster then the Q9550. Coming from AMD computers before I got this Dell I was worried about temps I was always told Intel runs very hot but I guess Intel don't run that hot. I guess this computer has made me into a Dell fan I love how quite it runs I can't even hear it run I never had a computer that ran so quite and the two fans are running but only at idle speeds. I thought at first the fans weren't spinning.
bradthetechnut
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February 16th, 2020 20:00
Optiplex 780 Tech Guide
Not sure where you're looking at refurbs, but it sounds like they're priced too high. Ebay and Walmart.com are quite reasonable. Amazon is a little over-priced. I got my refurb 7010 I7-3770 for $143 (normally $189) Thanksgiving weekend through eBay from the Blind Center of Nevada.
savvy2
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February 17th, 2020 04:00
so what are those questions, about old PC.?
most of what you hear are myths; mobo goes bad. is one myth. (for sure the steel/alum in the case will not fail)
what does fail is the RTC coin cell this old, over 5-7 years the can and do often, expect this.
next is the HDD, no HDD with matching HOURs this old lasts. run smart tests on it and learn if it is bad.(or going)" learn to look for un-correctable bad sectors"
the next killer of all electronics is heat, no way for me to know if your PC was run , in cold room or hot or even only 1hr per day . not me, but the smart test , shows hours on the HDD and is BIG clue that.
should I plan to buy another one just in case? (no) easy, NO. why would you want 2 PCs with no cash. (for double trouble?) NO WAY. or dump this PC and get 3020mT, with Haswell chip sets)
It's like an old CAR, with near 10 years of miles on it with say 200k miles, and you ask how long will it last.
there is no answer there either, ever. (unless I inspected it, sure)
now the endless, age old question about , RAM not being 16GB, well the PCs chip set, dictates that.
the reason #1 is the HD graphic chip has no VRAM !< so the PC steals ram from the mAIN BANK OF DDR RAM.
CORE2 _ Intel® Q45 Express Chipset w/ICH10DO (series 4 south bridge rules) Q45 MMC runs the ram..
yes finding ram that works on Q45 is never easy in the year, 2020, due to rank, density rules are hard to match.
even the intel data sheet names this Q45 stolen memory, covers all that.. as do the books on this PC at dell
tell you all about stolen DDR... (2 or more causes, vram and Pci usage)
If you read the Haswell DS, it has new cure for this but you do not have i3, i5, or i7 CPU.
hint2, some GPU cards used will lower this theft. (depends on BIOS and its versions)
page 116 DS
Graphics Base of Stolen Memory (GBSM): This register
contains bits 31:20 of the base address of stolen DRAM
memory. BIOS determines the base of graphics stolen
memory by subtracting the graphics stolen memory size
(PCI Device 0, offset 52h, bits 6:4) from TOLUD (PCI
Device 0, offset B0h, bits 15:4).
NOTE: This register is locked and becomes Read Only
when the D_LCK bit in the SMRAM register is set.
savvy2
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February 17th, 2020 05:00
Adam, YOU Have so many rumors you hold.. (try to focus on 1 problem and we can solve them, for sure)
this post is on CORE2, not i3 up?
first off, staying a CPU runs hot, is not true. (actually the best ones and most fast CPU run the hottest)
sure older chips seem to ran hotter sure some lame PC laptops burn up, mostly from bad service, or poor heat sinks.
this topic is about ONE PC, not 4 or HP or any other PC nor about laptops, but lets go there.
Desktops many have huge CPU heat sinks, like my HP Z600 has, huge!. and will never overheat.
Workstations are more TOUGH. this way. in fact have 20 CPUs they can run there and are fully supported..
other makers, do not do that, some have 3 Heatsinks (to save a lousy buck) use tiny for Celeron junk and 60w for slow I3 and 100watt for i7, max..
what matters only is YOUR PC and what CPU YOU have, and its Wattage rating (loss ) and the neat sink present. (and lint and dead '/weak fans sure)
welcome to newer computers that run fans slow, until needed, all modern PC do, and my ASUS Z270prime super slow super quite, PC. does. this.
you can not mix very old DDR between computers for sure core2, and i3 up..
the MMU is not the same. at all , on both PCs, for sure mixing old , rank, density DDR sticks fail , even the intel data sheet on your CPU warns you this will fail. and why and what works and what does not.
that is why they sell CERTIFIED DDR RAM so you can avoid all that pain, and guess work.
if the sound chip fails gee turn it off and buy a card, end the pain of old not supported w10 sound chips.. OK?
there are in fact vast things w10 does not support, (chip makers that died or do not support this line of chip now)
endless. If you want to talk heat then please do, and there are solutions, every time on desktops.
ever seem this,,,,, ???? just one of 1000s of cases Ive seen. and cured.
if you were the engineer of this PC would you make the Heatsink 10 x larger to cover this guys mess????????
or this.
laptop ( one Laptop I have takes hours of labor to reach this place) all screws out and mobo pulled !
see my 3030 mt. see this photo I made, see the difference, I look here first. the right one is best,.
forget rumors, learn to address exact issues, and solve those 1 by 1. most have a solution. (ask)
savvy2
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February 17th, 2020 05:00
ADAM,
DDR blues. right,?
well consider this,
how can some old DDR3 core2, PC MMC , work with new modern 2020, made, DDR chips DRAM.
that old old MMC is not magic it has fixed logic inside the MMC that can not even guess, what happened or exist in the year 2020.
this is called the G, moore effect, for sure on DDR< for sure huge changes in chip (DRAM)_ Density.
that no CORE 2 chip set can use. Q45
here is the Q45 page in the the intel data sheet from year 2008,(August) yea 12 years ago.
best means gen 4, best.
not the very serious limits here, it is Intels chip but Dell BIOS also has its own restrictions here.
the intel manual even stated, to not mix SKU., use a matched set, they tell you clear as day.
i3 even some mobo run DDR3, (rare) not normal DDR4, that is useless in any DDR3 mobo or the reverse..
INTEL DUAL CORE I3 2100 CPU ASUS H61 Motherboard 8GB DDR3
and are problematic, for H61 chip sets.
AdamG1982
46 Posts
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February 17th, 2020 08:00
The onboard sound card only seems to work after I reinstall the drivers but once I restart a second time the problem starts again I hear popping sounds even on the headphone jack but if I uninstall the drivers restart the computer Windows installs the drivers again it works again even if it's on for hours with no problems I had to going yesterday for 14 hours and it sounded great but after I turned it back on today the popping sounds are back. I was told this is a driver problem when I got this computer it had different drivers the ones that were meant for the onboard sound card but I have replaced the hard drive and I can't find these drivers that will work on Windows 10 nothing past Windows 7 is supported so how did someone find the right sound drivers before I got it? I went back to the video card sound card it sounds okay but the problem is my cheap TV I have to use the headphone jack and the sound it's perfect when hooked up to my stereo I liked the onboard sound better before these driver problems. Well I was told it's driver not hardware because if it was hardware the popping sounds wouldn't go away no matter what I do and reinstalling the drivers won't fix it. Can someone tell me how to get the drivers that will work on this onboard sound card? I know the input/mic jack works fine I started to record some of my records to MP4 and it works fine.
I never seen computers that dirty wow and I have been working on computers since Windows XP
AdamG1982
46 Posts
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February 17th, 2020 09:00
I went on the Dell site for this computer and ran a search on the sound card and it seems it has a Soundmax Integrated Digital High Definition Audio sound card I was able to find a another Dell site that had newer drivers with Windows 10 support listed for it and I have downloaded and installed them I did a manual install of the drivers through Windows and so far it worked Windows is detecting the sound card as "Soundmax Integrated Digital High Definition Audio" I will know for sure after I restart it a few more times but it seems okay after 2 restarts.
https://www.dell.com/support/home/ca/en/19/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=8r56m.%C2%A0
bradthetechnut
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February 22nd, 2020 18:00
Thanks for accepting a couple of my posts as solutions.
Here's a couple photos of my 755 you might like. The appearance of wires I wasn't as concerned about compared to functionality and besides, I wasn't inserting a window into the side panel.
AdamG1982
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February 22nd, 2020 19:00
Pictures are not showing
bradthetechnut
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February 22nd, 2020 19:00
They'll show once approved by a moderator. Also, in Android, one has to be signed out in order to see photos. If I'm already signed in, I sign out and use the back arrow.
savvy2
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February 23rd, 2020 07:00
savvy2
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February 23rd, 2020 07:00
if you have a PCI-e card SOUND/Audio?
tell what it is ., nobody can guess cards, ever, only told works.
or all answers will be wrong, open case look at all PCI lots and read the names on the cards with green 3.5mm sound line out jacks, tell this first. we can not see inside your case ever. unless you post a photo ,thanks.