Fancy a Challenge?

pumaz

pumaz

pumaz

Soldato
Joined
7 Oct 2003
Posts
5,693
Location
Nottingham
One of my sons as a Dell optiplex GX280 Small desktop PC with P4 2.8 CPU, 2GB DDR2 Ram, 40GB Hard Drive, 250w PSU and built in graphics. He also as a Antec tower Case and a 160GB Sata HD available. On top of this he as £100 to spend .

He wants to use the PC mainly for CSS and Surfing etc. What's the best configuration you guys can come up with using what's available.

Don't mind buying 2nd hand parts or stripping bits out the Dell or even adding to the Dell.

Any ideas?
 
Ditch the 250w PSU:

550W PSU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-OK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1105

Provided it's got PCIe, upgrade graphics:

OcUK 8800GT 512MB card -
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

Then I'd check a well known auction site for a CPU upgrade, as that's going to be your bottle neck. Oh and drop the the 160gb disk in too.

edit - just seen a picture of the board, that won't fit in the Antec case without a lot of hacking. Also, if this is the small form factor version, you're going to struggle to get that PSU and card in there. If it's the desktop tower version you'll probably be alright.
 
Last edited:
Keep it as it is and simply add a PCIe graphics card.Dell under-rate their PSU's so an ATI 3850 will be plenty powerful enough and you shouldn't need to upgrade the power supply.
 
randal24 said:
Ditch the 250w PSU:

550W PSU - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-018-OK&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1105

Provided it's got PCIe, upgrade graphics:

OcUK 8800GT 512MB card -
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-071-OK&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1008

Then I'd check a well known auction site for a CPU upgrade, as that's going to be your bottle neck. Oh and drop the the 160gb disk in too.

edit - just seen a picture of the board, that won't fit in the Antec case without a lot of hacking. Also, if this is the small form factor version, you're going to struggle to get that PSU and card in there. If it's the desktop tower version you'll probably be alright.
Click to expand...

Thanks

It is the small form factor desktop and not the tower that he as. Also i think for his needs i could probably get a cheapo 500w PSU for £15 from a local shop.

what about a new P4 motherboard and use the ram and CPU out the dell? but that won't leave much for a Videocard will it?
 
ExRayTed said:
Keep it as it is and simply add a PCIe graphics card.Dell under-rate their PSU's so an ATI 3850 will be plenty powerful enough and you shouldn't need to upgrade the power supply.
Click to expand...

That was my original thought although something like a 8600GT but would they be too high for the case?
 
Ah, that changes things a bit.

Those SFF machines are going to be a pain to upgrade, to be honest I'd probably shelve it and look at building something for the Antec. Depending on the RAM speed you might be able to salvage that, but it might make more sense just selling it on and using the cash to contribute towards a new board, cpu etc..

DDR2 is dirt cheap at the moment, £30 for 2gb. An E2xxx CPU is around £50, and there are decent boards from between £50-80. Say £45 for a PSU, then £120 for that 8800GT makes around £330 give or take for delivery. This is if you want to go down the new build route.

Thinking about your original request - CSS and Internet, ExRayTed may be on the money with just grabbing a fairly good graphics card. CSS isn't massively resource intensive compared to some game out today, and the ATI midrange cards should handle it OK.

Can you remember if the PCIe slot as a riser, or is it a half height card?
 
Maybe, I had a 8600GT on a 250W and it moaned every time I fired up a game. Had to go for a 420w but that's more than ample. As ExRayTed said though, Dell may under rate their PSUs so you might get away with it.
 
Thanks randal

I've had a good google round and it seems the GX280 might only have a 210w PSU, There also doesn't seem to be any confirmation that another graphics card will work with the GX280. In fact all the threads i've read seem to point out that the PSU is too underpowered to run another videocard :(

Can anyone recommend a good cheap motherboard that will work with the dell CPU and ram and take a 8600GT, by the way is the 8600GT the best gaming card for under £50?

Thanks
 
pumaz I am almost positive the 8600GT wil be fine. Don't read too much into PSU wattage, Dell PSU's are pretty efficient and that system uses very little actual power.
 
AbsenceJam said:
pumaz I am almost positive the 8600GT wil be fine. Don't read too much into PSU wattage, Dell PSU's are pretty efficient and that system uses very little actual power.
Click to expand...

Thanks

It might be worth me taking a punt on the Low Profile 8600GT and if it doesn't work I can always buy a motherboard and PSU.
 
Last edited:
Trust me you really wouldnt like to upgrade it in any way apart from putting maybe some stick of ram on bigger hdd in here.

JUST sell the whole damn thing, you should get somewhere between 200 and 300 quid for it, then just add that 100 or so on top and get urself new system like this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-028-OK&groupid=43&catid=1078&subcat=

I guess if you know how to put all these stuff together you can get similar build yourself and it should be even cheaper.


--
Maybe something like this, some time ago i've learnt that its better to put that extra 50quid on something and be happy with it than try to save every penny, than in 2months u will say that u gotta upgrade something else, then the drive blows up, ugotta change it but ** motherboard cant take any of the new ones so u change it too, then u need to change once again everything and so on ...

You should be able to get minimum of 200 for your dell ( try gumtree / ebay ). Also buying diff parts from diff sources( like cheap graphic from there, cheap cpu there and cheap this there ) costs you extra time / postage everytime so at the end of the day you will just waste your money :).

Your basket
Product Name Qty Price Line Total
Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail Intel Core 2 Duo E2160 "LGA775 Conroe" 1.80GHz (800FSB) - Retail £37.99
(£44.64) £37.99
(£44.64)
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-5300C3 667MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA663) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £55.99
(£65.79) £55.99
(£65.79)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775) £14.99
(£17.61) £14.99
(£17.61)
Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) Corsair VX 450W ATX PSU (CMPSU-450VXUK) £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail OcUK GeForce 8600 GT 512MB DDR2 HDTV/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £39.99
(£46.99) £39.99
(£46.99)
Samsung SpinPoint S 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD161HJ) Samsung SpinPoint S 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD161HJ) £27.99
(£32.89) £27.99
(£32.89)
Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower (No PSU) Coolermaster Elite 330 Midi Tower (No PSU) £24.99
(£29.36) £24.99
(£29.36)
Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM Pioneer DVR-215DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
(£19.96) £16.99
(£19.96)
Sub Total : £283.91
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £10.95
VAT is being charged at 17.5% VAT : £51.60
Total : £346.46
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom