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a new dell to play with

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    #1

    a new dell to play with

    went to purdue surplus, found out they have boatloads of gx240 units being scrapped... guess why:

    BAD CAPS! they goit at leasty 500 of them, they sold me this for 10 bux:

    dell optiplex gx240

    proprietary mobo- has extra 2 pci extender

    bad caps

    socket 478 p4 williamette

    case built well- handy clamshell design- if you have seen one they you know how cool it can be- mac like almost

    no ram- 2 pc133 slots (1gb max i think- i have the ram)

    no hd- missing a set of hd rails but next time im there ill snatch an extra set of another one

    dvd rom/ cdrw drive

    floppy drive

    decent ventalation around hard drives- has a second dell-style fan header up front

    more on the mobo: 4 usb 2.0 (2front, 2rear), 3com integrated lan, 1 agp 8x slot, 4 pci slots (1 has an extension, but not pci-x, 2 slots on expansion add-on), intgrated sound, good chipset heatsink

    hipro 250w psu- atx, beefy SOB- extremely over-built, might do more than 250?


    i have already removed the stock cpu heatsink mounts (broken), in the process i accidentally knocked off an oscon grr... added to recap list

    i have a suspected s478 prescott 2.8 ghz unit- ht? has 1mb L2. it came out of a beat up dimension 3000, i have a copper cooler from it that matches the duct on the cpu fan.

    i asked for a quote from tc for caps. i also asked if he has s478 bracket hardware as my retainer form the 3000 bolted through the board onto the case, but this gx240 used disposable plastic clips. standard hardware will clar that up

    also, i will give it a dell-edition (dell sound header present) sound blaster LIVE! card as an audio upgrade- pulled from another dell i had. i also have a modded asus radeon 9550 agp card w/ soldered in fan attached to heatsink.

    i am considering adding my spare usb 2.0 card w/ 5-pin usb header and adding to that an internal card reader. it worked great on my presario 7000... might be good for this.



    good deal?
    sigpic

    (Insert witty quote here)
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    #2
    Re: a new dell to play with

    Never had any issues with caps in the 240s, but we never had that many of them.

    Slow as fuck because of the williamette and the PC133. GX260s run circles around them. P4s need memory bandwidth! Even similar clock northwood is a big improvement just from the cache.

    The 845 chipset will support 2 gigs if you can find 1 gig PC133 sticks. AGP is only 4X, not that it matters much.

    I'm 99% sure it's the orginal 845 so that means no prescotts. 400 FSB CPUs only. Northwood 2.8 is probably the max, but check the website for BIOS support.

    The PCI slot with the expansion is for the riser card used in the low profile version. Works as a normal slot otherwise.

    PS is fine, never had any issues with them.

    If you broke the heatsink mount you might have a problem as they are not standard. You need the Dell mount and heatsink or else you will have to jury rig something. If you just broke the stupid green clips don't worry, you don't need them.

    If the recap isn't too bad then for $10 it's not a bad deal.

    Comment

      #3
      Re: a new dell to play with

      its a 400mhz (prescott?). i have a 2.6ghz northwood if needed.

      1gb chips are expensive as @#$&! last i checked.

      it had metal clips, and the holes are the same as the dimension 3000 cooler i have. all i need is new thru-hole clips or the like. dell is dell.

      the reason i removed the orginal clips:

      1- solder joint access for recap time
      2- the clips were for a grooved flanged hs (metal clips), but most northwood/prescott 478 dells had flat-flange mounting (green clips). the metal clips were shot and were not at all compatible with green clips coolers. i have base, green clips, and cooler, but no hardware to attach base to board.

      i checked, the copper version in the 3000 fits the duct.
      sigpic

      (Insert witty quote here)

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        #4
        Re: a new dell to play with

        i lied- 533. my cpu: http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SL7PK

        i might have to use the 2.6, and give that my 3000 board/hs set with the prescott.
        sigpic

        (Insert witty quote here)

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          #5
          Re: a new dell to play with

          crap. all my p4's other than the williamette are 533.

          all i have are 2 celerons. the better of the 2 is a northwood 2.7ghz 128mb

          i assume it beats the original.

          someday i will find a 2.8 400mhz p4 for it.
          Last edited by ratdude747; 11-23-2009, 11:45 PM.
          sigpic

          (Insert witty quote here)

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            #6
            Re: a new dell to play with

            Originally posted by ratdude747
            went to purdue surplus, found out they have boatloads of gx240 units being scrapped... guess why:

            BAD CAPS! they goit at leasty 500 of them, they sold me this for 10 bux:

            dell optiplex gx240
            Ah, good ol' GX240. Must have seen hundreds of these, but rarely ones with busted caps.

            proprietary mobo- has extra 2 pci extender
            Standard Dell motherboard. It's an MATX design except the backpanel is proprietary so you won't get any ideas to use it in an MATX case.

            socket 478 p4 williamette
            Yes, 478 Willamettes with 400Mhz FSB and 256KB cache. The fastest CPU these will take is a 400mhz 2.8 Northwood, which are rare these days. If you put in a 533fsb or 800fsb CPU, the computer will not boot, even with the latest bios.

            case built well- handy clamshell design- if you have seen one they you know how cool it can be- mac like almost
            My father likes these, I dunno, I have mixed feelings.

            no hd- missing a set of hd rails but next time im there ill snatch an extra set of another one
            I've got some of those.

            more on the mobo: 4 usb 2.0 (2front, 2rear), 3com integrated lan, 1 agp 8x slot, 4 pci slots (1 has an extension, but not pci-x, 2 slots on expansion add-on), intgrated sound, good chipset heatsink
            No, this is Intel 845 and it's AGP 4x IIRC, it and only USB 1. The 3COM Lan gives me problems. I have around 40 of these in a school somewhere and sometimes when the computer boots into Win2K the adapter is disabled and won't work until a reboot. Could be a driver issue though. I haven't tried upgrading to anything beyond the default Microsoft drivers of that era.

            hipro 250w psu- atx, beefy SOB- extremely over-built, might do more than 250?
            I've rarely if ever had any problems with the PSUs on these. Maybe once or twice on one of the SFF GX240s.

            good deal?
            $10 a piece? Buy them all.
            "We have offered them (the Arabs) a sensible way for so many years. But no, they wanted to fight. Fine! We gave them technology, the latest, the kind even Vietnam didn't have. They had double superiority in tanks and aircraft, triple in artillery, and in air defense and anti-tank weapons they had absolute supremacy. And what? Once again they were beaten. Once again they scrammed [sic]. Once again they screamed for us to come save them. Sadat woke me up in the middle of the night twice over the phone, 'Save me!' He demanded to send Soviet troops, and immediately! No! We are not going to fight for them."

            -Leonid Brezhnev (On the Yom Kippur War)

            Comment

              #7
              Re: a new dell to play with

              oh, i see. i thought it was 2.0

              they had tons but most have been scrapped, all with nichicons failed

              they still have 40 left.

              i think it will make a fine fileserver/ web browser/ tv tuner unit.

              mockingbird- where do you live? i might want some spare case parts.

              btw, its gonna be a linux box. maybe xp dual-boot.
              sigpic

              (Insert witty quote here)

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                #8
                Re: a new dell to play with

                Only the first versions of i845 chipset took PC133.
                It was limited to 3GB, not 4GB. - And it's picky about density.

                -
                I'll try not to get confusing [or confused].
                The chipset supports 6 banks.
                Each bank can be up to 512Mb and has to be 64Mb or 72Mb wide.
                [ECC is okay but all have to be ECC for it to work. Registered is not okay.]
                A single sided module is one bank. [so 512MB max]
                A double sided module is two banks. [so 1Gb max]

                Not common but some boards may have all or some slots that are only 'wired' to support one bank. If you see a 4 slot board that supports 2GB max that might be what you have.
                That's to support these configurations:
                Config 1 - 2x Double sided 1GB in the first two slots.
                Config 2 - 4x Single sided w/ 512Mb in all 4 slots.
                Double sided won't work in the last two slots.
                Iffy 3GB Config 3 - 2x Double sided 1GB in the first two slots + 2x Single sided w/ 512Mb in the last 2 slots.
                [Should work if BIOS lets it.]

                The next chipset after that was UNofficially called the i845D.
                It could take either SDRAM or DDR [not mixed] and I -think- it handled 4Gb.
                Most mobos with that set had both SDRAM and DDR slots but some mobo's were made with it that had either SDRAM or DDR slots but not both.
                .
                Mann-Made Global Warming.
                - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                -
                Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                - Dr Seuss
                -
                You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                -

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: a new dell to play with

                  GX240 is -officially- 1GB max -> 2x 512Mb
                  http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...es.htm#1107337
                  -
                  I would stick to 2x 512Mb as a target anyway.
                  Non-Registered 1GB PC133 is rare and usually expensive.
                  .
                  Mann-Made Global Warming.
                  - We should be more concerned about the Intellectual Climate.
                  -
                  Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
                  - Dr Seuss
                  -
                  You can teach a man to fish and feed him for life, but if he can't handle sushi you must also teach him to cook.
                  -

                  Comment

                    #10
                    Re: a new dell to play with

                    Off topic, but I recently bought some surplus ex-education department Acer Veriton 5200 desktops for $10AUD (about $7USD). They were complete with a 1.7GHz P4 Willamette CPU, 256MB RAM, CDRW and No OS (unfortunately). No bad caps though... all caps were Sanyo made.

                    But nonetheless Ratdude, you found a good deal.
                    Don't find love, let love find you. That's why its called falling in love, because you don't force yourself to fall, you just fall. - Anonymous

                    Comment

                      #11
                      Re: a new dell to play with

                      RatDude if that unit is set up internally like the GX 180 you can do a quick and dirty cooling upgrade to it. If it is, the cpu fan will exhaust inside of the case. You can add a fan using plastic clips to the screen mesh in the rear of the case blowing into the box. If you can do this you will find that dust is nolonger sucked into your optical drives, and the whole unit will run much cooler. Right now my wife is running my old GX 180 with this mod done to it and its fine and cool. I am using a Dimension 4550 with a P4 2.4 Nothwood 533fsb, and one gig of ram. Its slow too, but then again these 4550 things never had a rep of being all that fast. I need to get the cpu cooling duct work out of a trashed GX 180 up at the shop then I can do the same cooling trick for this thing. I also like the clam shell case but I've found that it isn't perfect. One a case with side covers you can just leave one off, and you can do what ever you need to do when you need to do it. With the clam shell you usually have to unhook everything, and lay the box on its side to get into it. All in all its still a neat case. As I have another of these 4550 cases I am going to do a test fit with a dead OTC board someday and see what sawsall tricks will be needed to make it work. Now you say you have badcaps. I'd be very suspect of that PSU in the unit. My GX180 came off the junk pile with a dead PSU. It was a big beefy thing too so I had it repaired. It lasted all of three months then started getting smoking hot. The fan in it was still working fine too. I replaced it with some old junk PSU that I had here and now it runs just warm at its hottest moments. If you do change out the PSU Dell did use a strange pin out on some of their PC's. Make sure yours is a standard pinout before trying to fire it up with a standard PSU. You can switch the pins around on a standard PSU to Dells configuration if needs be. We don't want to make any smoke here. By the way those PC's are a good find on your part.
                      "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                      Mark Twain

                      "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                      John Paul Jones

                      There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                      Rod Serling

                      Comment

                        #12
                        Re: a new dell to play with

                        Stevo my Dell GX 180 came loaded without a hard drive from the Howard University in Baltimore Maryland. It cost me $40.00 USD. I had a 5400 rpm Maxtor Hard drive here so thats what it got. After a month the old maxtor took a dump on me so off to Vernon's shop I go for a new/used drive. Just so happens that Vernon had a box of 7200 rpm 60 gig WD drives that he had just purchased from the HOWARD UNIVERSITY. I bought one for $20.00 USD. I installed it and fired up the PC just to see what would happen. All that happened was that it booted right to Xp. It didn't install any new drivers or anything like that! Well I take that back. The bios did update it's self to reflect the WD HD install. That drive had to have come from one of the Dell GX 180 units that Vernon bought from Howard the month before. All I had to do was uninstall Howards BS add-on software, and install my own add-ons. The best part is that the WD died on me too, and I RMAed the thing with WD and got a brand new one...LOL The new drive is still alive and well to this day. I think that this is the only "luck" that I have ever had when dealing with Hard Drives. No I take that back too! The best thing I did was to stop buying Maxtors!
                        "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so."
                        Mark Twain

                        "I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way."
                        John Paul Jones

                        There is a fifth dimension, beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.
                        Rod Serling

                        Comment

                          #13
                          Re: a new dell to play with

                          Our local university is selling off all their GX240's. I picked one up for $10, complete with 1.6 williamette, no ram or hd, 16mb ati rage, broken cd-rw, but it was about the only one that wasn't missing half it's panels or scratched all to hell.

                          It has all rubycon's with some UCC OSCON's. Slapped a 2.8 celeron I found in the trash in it, two 512mb pc133 sticks, and it has been running like clockwork for a couple of months now. The PSU in mine is a newton w/ PPFC though.

                          Comment

                            #14
                            Re: a new dell to play with

                            no, its not like a gx180.

                            ill see what i can do with it.

                            ill post pics of the psu
                            sigpic

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                              #15
                              Re: a new dell to play with

                              If they had hard drives you could hustle them off on craigslist for $30 or more. They probably sold the ram and hard drives separate.

                              Comment

                                #16
                                Re: a new dell to play with

                                Originally posted by ratdude747
                                all i have are 2 celerons. the better of the 2 is a northwood 2.7ghz 128mb

                                i assume it beats the original.
                                With northwoods I found you needed about 600 MHz for a Celeron to match a full P4. So a 2.4 Celeron benched about the same as a 1.8 P4.

                                This was all in GX260s though which have double the memory bandwidth of the 240s. The cache hit might hurt even more with the slow RAM. Try them both and keep whichever benches higher.

                                Even a slow northwood would be a nice upgrade if you can find one.

                                Comment

                                  #17
                                  Re: a new dell to play with

                                  Originally posted by NxB
                                  If they had hard drives you could hustle them off on craigslist for $30 or more. They probably sold the ram and hard drives separate.
                                  ram sold already, the hd's are destroyed for confedentiality- too many to mass-reformat

                                  the celeron did well in the machine it was in.
                                  sigpic

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                                    #18
                                    Re: a new dell to play with

                                    crap, tc doesnt have the poly cap. 4v 820uf 10mm.

                                    ill digikey it... yay, panny fc is in stock.
                                    sigpic

                                    (Insert witty quote here)

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                                      #19
                                      Re: a new dell to play with

                                      ok, here is my list:

                                      9x: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=P10205-ND

                                      2x: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=P11207-ND

                                      1x: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...name=P10225-ND

                                      poly: http://search.digikey.com/scripts/Dk...me=565-3036-ND

                                      good choices?
                                      sigpic

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                                        #20
                                        Re: a new dell to play with

                                        oh, and the hs bracket is standard hole placement. base is different, thats all
                                        sigpic

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