Dell Optiplex GXI how old is it?

[vidman3117]

Just got the above computer at a yard sale with a BX Pentium II 347mhz processor,192 mgs Ram,3D Rage Agp 2x,XP Pro,1.3g hd (this must be an oldie, because of the size of the hd, and I am sure it was not using XPPro!! Fantastic box with pot open hinged access, and a vertical slide in board that holds all the card slots, except the memory, and has its own large gold connector to the motherboard. Very easy to upgrade. However, I have some upgrade and modification questions:
1.Would I imnprove the performance,(Pentium II, 327mhz, 192mb Ram, 1.3 g HD by changing the OS from WXPpro to W98SE?
2.Where,(I believe the motherboad is the orignal that came with the unit)can I find specs on how large a hd this can take,can it take Pentium 3,4,and what type of Ram does this unit take??
I am looking very carefully at the motherboad for id's and so far, unless I pull all the memory out, and connectors, no luck. Any suggestions on this oldie but goodie?
Regards
Vidman

 

[Frank4d]

Your system is probably a GX1 (not GXI)

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ban_gx1/specs.htm

and is probably about 6 years old. Maximum HD size is probably 6.4GB unless you can find a BIOS update or use drive overlay software.

 

[ImpetusEra]

The best thing to do to speed that up is put a 7200 rpm drive in. The one I got for $25 awhile back had a P2 400, 64MB ram and a 6.4GB 5200rpm hard drive. Bumped the ram up to 192MB and that helped a little. Then I tossed in a 10GB 7200rpm hard drive and it was alot faster to load than before. They do have bios updates on dell website. Mine runs 2000 Pro and has 802.11a wireless pci card. It works fine for email, net and word processing type tasks.

 

[garebo]

Dont use overlay, instead you can get an ultra controller for $10 or less these days.
I bet you would get more satisfaction out of that computer by running win 98se rather than win xp. If you want the "system restore" feature that xp has, then just get goback and install that, its better than system restore anyway, by miles. Put another way, system restore is a cheap, watered down version of goback.
If it doesnt have usb you can get a pci usb card or even a combo pci usb\firewire card but if you do that dont buy the one with the ALI chipset, try and find the NEC or other chipset. Dont run norton systemworks as it will bog you down, you can get AVG antivirus free. And of course, there are plenty of good used modems or nic cards around real cheap these days if you need one.
Good luck.
I'm wondering if that cpu is over or underclocked, given the speed you are reporting.
Last, be careful of the Dell trap and dont forget that the mobo and power supply are both proprietary, you can just install any mobo with that power supply and you can just install any power supply with that mobo or you will burn them out. If you go to replace either one you have to get a Dell unit or replace them both together with non-Dell parts.
Good luck.



Good advice + great people = tek-tips

 

[vidman3117]

Hey, great advice guys! I got to the Dell web site, and loads of info. Seems like I can go to 20gig without overlay,and I can update to a pentium III processor.Wouldn't I just take out the processor chip and replace it with a Pentium III chip? And, if I change to win98SE I will see a speed increase?
Appreciate any feedback.
Regards,
Vidman