A Good Buy?

[Amused]

http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf

I have a chance to buy one or more of these (2.8 Ghz P4 mini tower versions with 512MB RAM) for $300 each with a Dell 17" flat panel, keyboard and mouse. XP and Office 2003 licenses included. All are in excellent shape.

A friend's business is selling these for the lease buy-out price.

Was thinking of buying it to give to someone for email/internet and basic use

The only bummer is the intergrated graphics.

A good buy?

 

[Safeway]

There have been Dell deals for better computers before. The only bonus is that they all include 17" LCDs and XP/Office.

I wouldn't go balls out and buy them for resell or anything, but if you are in need of a utilitarian machine or two, go for it.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If that's the one I'm thinking of, you can fix the graphics problem (to a degree) with a low-profile PCIe 7600GS.

I'd say go for it, and possibly In For ATOT Group Buy.

Edit - I'm thinking of the wrong machines. I'm not personally interested in one anymore.

The graphics problem is easy to fix since it's the mini-tower version.

- M4H

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: Safeway
There have been Dell deals for better computers before. The only bonus is that they all include 17" LCDs and XP/Office.

I wouldn't go balls out and buy them for resell or anything, but if you are in need of a utilitarian machine or two, go for it.

So it would be a good buy for someone to use as a basic machine?

I'm not trying to ebay them or make money. Just a way to get a good usable machine for someone on the cheap.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
If that's the one I'm thinking of, you can fix the graphics problem (to a degree) with a low-profile PCIe 7600GS.

I'd say go for it, and possibly In For ATOT Group Buy.

- M4H

I don't think it has PCIe slots. These machines are from 2003/4

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Amused
I don't think it has PCIe slots. These machines are from 2003/4

Yeah, threw an edit in there after flipping through the PDF and Googling.

$300 is still pretty good if you consider it as $225 for the PC itself and $75 for the monitor. It wouldn't be worth it to make them game-worthy (extra 512MB RAM minimum, AGP video card, etc) but for basic machines, :thumbsup:

- M4H

 

[FoBoT]

i wouldn't go above $250 with only 512MB RAM

 

[MedicBob]

I agree with M4H. For simple internet use it would be pretty good. Has a legal OS and Office, and a 17 inch flat panel $300.00 USD seems pretty good.

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: MedicBob
I agree with M4H. For simple internet use it would be pretty good. Has a legal OS and Office, and a 17 inch flat panel $300.00 USD seems pretty good.

Better yet, since they're off-lease business units, they're probably loaded with volume editions of XP Pro and Office. No activation hassle.

Just make sure that if you care about who you're giving them to, make a quick image of the thing so that a reinstall is cake.

- M4H

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: Amused
http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf

I have a chance to buy one or more of these (2.8 Ghz P4 mini tower versions with 512MB RAM) for $300 each with a Dell 17" flat panel, keyboard and mouse. XP and Office 2003 licenses included. All are in excellent shape.

A friend's business is selling these for the lease buy-out price.

Was thinking of buying it to give to someone for email/internet and basic use

The only bummer is the intergrated graphics.

A good buy?

if its only for email and internet use, why does the integrated graphics matter?

 

[Safeway]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Amused
http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf

I have a chance to buy one or more of these (2.8 Ghz P4 mini tower versions with 512MB RAM) for $300 each with a Dell 17" flat panel, keyboard and mouse. XP and Office 2003 licenses included. All are in excellent shape.

A friend's business is selling these for the lease buy-out price.

Was thinking of buying it to give to someone for email/internet and basic use

The only bummer is the intergrated graphics.

A good buy?

if its only for email and internet use, why does the integrated graphics matter?

If you plug in a high resolution monitor, scrolling can be laggy with integrated graphics.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: pontifex

Originally posted by: Amused
http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf

I have a chance to buy one or more of these (2.8 Ghz P4 mini tower versions with 512MB RAM) for $300 each with a Dell 17" flat panel, keyboard and mouse. XP and Office 2003 licenses included. All are in excellent shape.

A friend's business is selling these for the lease buy-out price.

Was thinking of buying it to give to someone for email/internet and basic use

The only bummer is the intergrated graphics.

A good buy?

if its only for email and internet use, why does the integrated graphics matter?

Because it's for a GF and I may want to play a game or two when I'm there.

Also, doesn't Vista have some pretty drastic grahpics requirements? (thinking ahead here)

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: Amused
Because it's for a GF and I may want to play a game or two when I'm there.

Also, doesn't Vista have some pretty drastic grahpics requirements? (thinking ahead here)

The only game you should be playing with your GF involves making video, not watching it.

Vista = drop in a cheap AGP graphics card.

- M4H

 

[wheresmybacon]

I'd steer clear. The GX270's are notorious for having swollen/leaking capacitors. I'm a sysadmin for large company and I've replaced more than half of the motherboards in our 270's over the last year.

Unless you can be sure these have the new motherboards I wouldn't go near this deal.

 

[desy]

Yeah enterprise wide we have replaced a lot of GX270's but not me personally?
humidity altitude? Mine have bee good so far.

 

[Zolty]

I have these at our office, we are currently replacing all of them due to some flawed capasitors on the motherboard. you should check to see if the board has been replaced.

 

[Amused]

Originally posted by: hungfarover
I'd steer clear. The GX270's are notorious for having swollen/leaking capacitors. I'm a sysadmin for large company and I've replaced more than half of the motherboards in our 270's over the last year.

Unless you can be sure these have the new motherboards I wouldn't go near this deal.

It makes no difference that these have been running flawlessly for 3-4 years?

 

[Amused]

up

 

[Zolty]

Originally posted by: Amused

Originally posted by: hungfarover
I'd steer clear. The GX270's are notorious for having swollen/leaking capacitors. I'm a sysadmin for large company and I've replaced more than half of the motherboards in our 270's over the last year.

Unless you can be sure these have the new motherboards I wouldn't go near this deal.

It makes no difference that these have been running flawlessly for 3-4 years?

No, ours started to go bad at around the 3 year mark they are going to turn 4 at the end of the year. I have replaced around 1/3 of 150 units and I replace 2-5 weekly.

 

[BornStar]

I wouldn't bother personally. We've got a bunch of Optiplexs here and after they hit the three year mark they start dropping like flies. I have a computer go down the tubes every few weeks and it's getting to the point where fixing them just isn't a good option.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: hungfarover
I'd steer clear. The GX270's are notorious for having swollen/leaking capacitors. I'm a sysadmin for large company and I've replaced more than half of the motherboards in our 270's over the last year.

Unless you can be sure these have the new motherboards I wouldn't go near this deal.

I was going to say the same thing, but if these are over a year old they would have encountered this problem by now. All of ours seemed to have this problem almost a 1 year to the date that they were 1st powered on.

 

[cbrsurfr]

The only failures with our GX270's have been the crappy Maxtor hard drives. That was when they were less than a year old. I even had the replacement from Dell fail on my 270. Now SX280 USFF PCs are a whole different story... I'm replacing about 2 of those a week due to dead mainboards.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I did a lot of contracting work replacing bad motherboards on these bastards.

The reason being : The capacitors are crapolla on them. You will see them bulge and start pussing.