Lots of Prebuilts, what to do with them?

[gryffinwings]

So I recently picked up a bunch of computers, 8 of them for $40 dollars, and I found 2 more and a monitor on the street. So I have 10 computers that I am messing around with, but I want to have a direction for these computers and have uses for them, maybe this is a bit over kill, but I am having way too much fun with this, here are the computers I have acquired, I apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum, seems like the best fit:

Paid 40 USD for these:

Found these on the street:

-Dell Optiplex 745 - Originally came with Windows XP Professional - Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 - 4 GB of RAM.

Linux Ubuntu installed, Upgraded CPU to Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 and 8 GB of RAM for approximately 30 USD.​

-Custom Computer - Intel D946GZIS Motherboard - Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 - 1GB RAM - No HDD or SSD

No idea what I will do with this one, I've heard the best upgrade for the CPU is the Intel Q6600, I've also heard some Intel Xeons work, which would be interesting. Max ram supported is 4GB.
​

-Custom Computer - Intel DQ965GF Motherboard - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 - 3GB RAM - No HDD or SSD

Not sure what I'll do with this one yet, I've heard this one supports the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800 and 8GB of RAM.
​

-Gateway G6-400 - Intel Motherboard - Intel Pentium II - 400 MHz - 96MB RAM - 30 GB IBM Deskstar HDD

ATi Rage LT Pro AGP Video Card. Probably just use this for old games, unless there are other uses for it. Windows 98 SE installed.
​

-Gateway Pentium 4 Computer - Needs Motherboard repair, bad capacitors, this is something I can do, I've

done this on another computer. I'll fix it later.
​

-HP Proliant ML115 - AMD Opteron 64 Dual Core. Might use this for some kind of Linux server or something, as it sits, it needs lots of cleaning.

​

-HP Proliant DL360 G7 - No CPU, No RAM, No HDD or SSD. Will populate these with with cheaper 6 Core

Xeons such as the E5645 CPUS and maybe 8GBs per CPU to start, then populate with WD 1TB Caviar Black 2.5" HDDs or Some SSDs. Maybe use as a Video Editing and Rendering server due to core count.
​

-HP Proliant DL360 G6 - Same as the G7, will need to find a use for it, until then it would remain offline.

On the Street Curb Finds:
- Two Dell Vostro 220 - Windows Vista Business - Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 - 4 GB RAM - 250GB HDD

AMD Radeon HD3450. I've found I can put in a Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, which I am looking at doing, they seem cheap enough. The graphics cards are really weak, so I think I would put something like an AMD Radeon 7850, something that doesn't need a ton of power. Might update this computer to Windows 10 as I don't have one. The other Vostro 220, I'm tempted to see if I can do some around the bout overclocking, as I've heard the Pentium E5200 is an excellent overclocker, just for the heck of it.​

So that's all of them, short of selling them, thoughts and ideas on uses for some of these??? At the moment, I am having fun just getting some of these running. Also, I do now that Windows Vista isn't supported, but it has the COA so I'm using it til I can get these upgraded. I have other hardware needs such as a KVM and a Network switch I need to buy first.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Nice find! Sounds like fun. You should see my storage unit, I've got piles of custom-built PCs like that myself.

I acquired a Vostro 220 or something like it, a long time ago, and souped it up, and gave it to my BIL, to replace his P4 Dell. That was quite a long time ago, today, though.

If you can get them upgraded, and refurbished, maybe a local Church or Community Shelter might be interested in one or two of the PCs?

Edit: My advice would be to max out the RAM, optionally the CPU, and dust them out and clean them up, put in a cheap SSD (120GB Team L5 Lite 3D NAND SATA SSDs were $19.99 recently @ Newegg), put in a GT 710 or GT 730 video card for $25-$35, and then slap Windows 10 Pro on there (unactivated, if need be, otherwise, get e-mail keys off of Bonanza), and they should work fairly well.

 

[gryffinwings]

Nice find! Sounds like fun. You should see my storage unit, I've got piles of custom-built PCs like that myself.

I acquired a Vostro 220 or something like it, a long time ago, and souped it up, and gave it to my BIL, to replace his P4 Dell. That was quite a long time ago, today, though.

If you can get them upgraded, and refurbished, maybe a local Church or Community Shelter might be interested in one or two of the PCs?

Edit: My advice would be to max out the RAM, optionally the CPU, and dust them out and clean them up, put in a cheap SSD (120GB Team L5 Lite 3D NAND SATA SSDs were $19.99 recently @ Newegg), put in a GT 710 or GT 730 video card for $25-$35, and then slap Windows 10 Pro on there (unactivated, if need be, otherwise, get e-mail keys off of Bonanza), and they should work fairly well.

A lot of good suggestions, I'm likely to sell off a couple, I like the Dell Vostro 220 computers, they're clean, the case is pretty nice looking, clean layout, the CPU can be upgraded to a Q9550, which isn't that expensive, 8GBs of RAM I've heard is possible. Lot's of options. In regards to the Nvidia GT 730, I am also considering the AMD R7 250.

 

[VirtualLarry]

In regards to the Nvidia GT 730, I am also considering the AMD R7 250.

That would work too, especially for some gaming, if you get the GDDR5 version of the R7 250. But the GT 730 can do 4K60 over HDMI too. Don't think that the R7 250 can do that.

 

[gryffinwings]

That would work too, especially for some gaming, if you get the GDDR5 version of the R7 250. But the GT 730 can do 4K60 over HDMI too. Don't think that the R7 250 can do that.

The 4K60 over HDMI with the GT 730 is a very compelling argument.

Also looking at upgrading the NICs to Intel Gigabit NICs for better network performance. Would be buying used on eBay.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Also looking at upgrading the NICs to Intel Gigabit NICs for better network performance. Would be buying used on eBay.

If you're refurbishing PCs to sell, a 10% difference in networking performance seems like a real non-issue, compared to RAM capacity, CPU cores, and an SSD for OS/boot purposes.

Unless the onboard NIC is broken, or doesn't support the OS that you want to put on there (some form of Linux?), or it came with only a 10/100 NIC, I wouldn't bother. Unless the Intel Gigabit NIC costs $5 or less. Even then, I'd question it if it isn't a real need.

 

[gryffinwings]

If you're refurbishing PCs to sell, a 10% difference in networking performance seems like a real non-issue, compared to RAM capacity, CPU cores, and an SSD for OS/boot purposes.

Unless the onboard NIC is broken, or doesn't support the OS that you want to put on there (some form of Linux?), or it came with only a 10/100 NIC, I wouldn't bother. Unless the Intel Gigabit NIC costs $5 or less. Even then, I'd question it if it isn't a real need.

Oh, I was referring to the ones I was going to keep, the ones I sell, I'm only going to do minor upgrades to keep them relevant. SSD, CPU Quad Core upgrade, RAM upgrade and at least the Nvidia GT730 for 4k.

 

[whm1974]

So with minor upgrades and cheap SSDs what sort of usable performance could someone expect out of of them for 2018 and up?

Web Box? Low end gaming system? Something to give a kid for his or her first computer?

 

[gryffinwings]

So with minor upgrades and cheap SSDs what sort of usable performance could someone expect out of of them for 2018 and up?

Web Box? Low end gaming system? Something to give a kid for his or her first computer?

Anything you want you can do with them, you are only limited to your imagination. Heck, I'm sure you could use these for some form of production work, such as photo editing or video editing as long as you used the appropriate software that worked with the specs, like an older version of Adobe Premiere Pro or Elements and a camera that didn't use such huge files.

You can use various distros of Linux and go Open Source, learn a coding language like python or something. Plenty you can do with them, much better to put them to use instead of going to the land fill.

The Dell Vostro 220 that I have are up-gradable to the Intel Core 2 Quad Q9650, which is a 3.0 GHz CPU with 12 MB of Cache.

Another one of my computers uses the Intel DQ965GF Motherboard and can use the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6800, which is a 2.93 GHz CPU with 8MB of Cache. So with those CPUs, will have a decent amount of grunt, and there are plenty of other games besides Triple A games, I don't get why people get so hung up on those games. The games I'm currently playing are on steam, Final Fantasy XIII and Cities Skyline, which don't require that much in the way of hardcore hardware to be honest, I'm running those in my primary rig:

Dell Precision T3500 (paid less than 70 USD)
CPU: Intel Xeon W3520 (2.66GHz Quad Core) - I just upgraded this to an Intel Xeon X5675 3.06 GHz 6 Core CPU (Paid 30 USD for this upgrade)
GPU: Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD6950 1GB (paid 30 USD)

So I'm telling you, you don't need to spend a ton of money to have fun playing games.

 

[whm1974]

I'm sure I could find some use for the T3500 w/ its Xeon 3000Mhz 6 Core CPU. How much memory? I have a GTX 760 4GB dGPU in my closet I could put in it.

 

[gryffinwings]

I'm sure I could find some use for the T3500 w/ its Xeon 3000Mhz 6 Core CPU. How much memory? I have a GTX 760 4GB dGPU in my closet I could put in it.

I'm running just 8GB of DDR3, however the T3500 can have a ton of memory, with a W series Xeon, your limited to 24 GB, but if you use an X5675 like I have you can use much more. The GTX 760 should be a fine GPU for gaming, I think my Radeon HD 6950 is a bit older and it works for my uses.

 

[whm1974]

Briefly looking at Ebay and Newegg for refurbished Xeon workstations just to see what I could get at low prices, I notice a number of dual 6 core Xeon(12 cores) systems with 16GB to 24GB of ECC memory. So would it by worth it to buy a Dual Xeon 12 cores total with 24Gb of ECC RAM workstation? Even if it didn't come with any storeage or graphics card?

 

[gryffinwings]

Briefly looking at Ebay and Newegg for refurbished Xeon workstations just to see what I could get at low prices, I notice a number of dual 6 core Xeon(12 cores) systems with 16GB to 24GB of ECC memory. So would it by worth it to buy a Dual Xeon 12 cores total with 24Gb of ECC RAM workstation? Even if it didn't come with any storeage or graphics card?

Honestly, it really depends on what your needs are, which I do not know. T5500s and T7500s can come configured with Dual CPUs which is cool, but for most games, it's not necessary, however if you need a computer for video editing or 3D rendering like with Adobe Premiere Pro or Solid Works etc. then maybe it would be worth it.

It really just depends on what you need a computer to do.

For me, when I decide decide to really get into video editing, I have a 1u rack type HP Server with dual E5645s that I am working to build and use as a remote video editing server, so far I've spent $25 dollars including the CPUs, next is ram and hard drives.

So.... What do you need your computer to do?

 

[whm1974]

Play modern games, minor video editing, streaming videos, and I'm using Linux if that matters. Nothing that I would benefit from getting higher end hardware at this moment.

 

[SamirD]

I know I'm late to the party, but I have a ton of those era systems and I'll tell you what I did with them.

Maxed out the ram, put in whatever gpu the system can handle, loaded xp with windows steadystate. I rdp into them and give them small tasks to handle, which they do very well. Plus, because of the steadystate setup, they're like toasters and can't really get a virus or whatnot since they only save their state if told to from an admin account. They're just solid little machines to have do whatever tasks you want. For the faster ones, I find it useful to be able to put a single task on a single machine, freeing up my main machine for other work. Sure a single task isn't as fast on a machine like that, but put a half a dozen or so and you've got like 12+ extra cores at your disposal--that's a lot of extra computing power.