Bought a Desk Top PC for $30!

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BobsArmory

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So our old Desktop PC was getting VERY slow and old and I was thinking of buying a new one when my wife mentioned that she can get a used PC from work when they retire the older ones and buy new. SO I said why not? The next day she brought home this. Completely de dusted and reformatted. Even came with a new keyboard and mouse.

Dell Optiplex 960
Intel Core Duo E8400 @3GHz CPU
4GB Ram (all 4 slots filled)
Win 7 Professional

Runs pretty decent for an older system but I started wondering if I should make some upgrades to make it last a few more years.

If I upgrade it what should I look at?

RAM?
SSD?
Operating system?
Buy a faster refurbished CPU?

Thoughts?
 
try to get second hand ram to upgrade to 8GB and sell part of your ram, maybe even sell 2 1GB sticks and get 2 2GB.

SSD - best performance upgrade you can do!

graphics update would be an option too, get one that offers hardware video codec acceleration. But I don't know if the prices have recovered from the high spike of bitcoin mining.

SSD and Ram upgrade first.

Another step would be switching to Linux Mint oder Lubuntu - more up to date and perform nicely on older hardware.

I wouldn't really invest in an CPU upgrade, there are a few things to be considered: Cooling, Bios compatibility and performance/$.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted by alex_at
try to get second hand ram to upgrade to 8GB and sell part of your ram, maybe even sell 2 1GB sticks and get 2 2GB.

SSD - best performance upgrade you can do!

graphics update would be an option too, get one that offers hardware video codec acceleration. But I don't know if the prices have recovered from the high spike of bitcoin mining.

SSD and Ram upgrade first.

Another step would be switching to Linux Mint oder Lubuntu - more up to date and perform nicely on older hardware.

I wouldn't really invest in an CPU upgrade, there are a few things to be considered: Cooling, Bios compatibility and performance/$.



I concur.

SSD will show the most benefit. I wouldn't mess with a CPU upgrade.

If all you're doing is Internet and MS Office, it will last for many years to come.
 
SSD is the number 1 thing I would upgrade.
Bumping the ram to 8gb would be number 2.
Graphics I would upgrade only if you want to watch HD videos or play some slightly older games.
 
SSD is #1 for sure,

Upgrade Ram ONLY if you are running out of memory, otherwise you're just wasting your money. Open task manager clicky the performance tab and look at the memory usage and start working. If the available memory does not drop below 500mb you should be OK. Windows 7 is lean and mean for that hardware just leave it be. I am IT and had hundreds of systems just like that one and we didnt need 8gb memory until we got office2016 installed ...it is a massive HOG!
 
don't underestimate browsers of today, I have an old machine with 3.5gb of ram and Firefox fills it up almost completely. Much better system performance with 6GB as I've tried.
 
I also say Ram. I use an optiplex 970 at work. Asked them for more ram since it seems to run at a crawl when it has none to spare with 4GB and a few windows open. They told me I was eligible for a new computer 3.5 years ago. Never got to try more ram but I am sure that was my problem.
 
SSD and more memory as already been mentioned. I would not spend another dime on it other than those two, unless I could get Windows 10 cheap.

Change the battery. I would also clean the heat sink/fan, clean processor of old thermal paste, and install new thermal paste.
 
You might still be able to upgrade it to Windows 10 and just use the old Windows 7 key on it to active it.

But yes, the only thing would be an SSD, the 250 gig ones are pretty cheap.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

That has the 775 socket and the fastest you can get seems to be the Q9650. You might have to update the bios first before swapping chips. Used ones on eBay are about $38 so you could do it for fun. But I don't think it'll get you much, you get a quad core instead of a dual core, depends on whether you're running software that can take advantage of all 4 cores. Uses a little more power, 95 vs 65 watts on the E8400.
 
SSD will show 95% of the speed you will see if you add an SSD and ram, I myself would not add ram unless you can get it for $10 to $15. Otherwise dont waste your money on a relic other then the SSD.
 
Get a cheap SSD and search and look for some cheap ram, even on eBay.

I'm an IT Equipment Coordinator and rebuild these old PCs all day, an SSD is hands down the best thing you can do.
 
SSD and max the RAM out. Install W10 or enable the TRIM command in W7 so the SSD can do its housekeeping(and why it's not a good idea to defrag one like a mechanical hard drive).
 
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