New Work Comp

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:05:22 Post Subject: New Work Comp

I was expecting a laptop, so when this little nugget was dropped on my desk I was kinda disapponted. Its a Dell optiplex GX280... A weird little SFF kinda thing that has some decent specs, but is weak in key areas...

It has:

P4 2.8GHz cpu (800 MHz fsb - 1MB cache)
512 MB DDR-2 400 MHz
40GB SATA HDD (Seagate)
DVD+/-RW CDRW combo drive (laptop size drive)
Win XP Pro

All pretty cool.

But... It has integrated graphics, sharing the system memory with a max configurable memory of 8MB!! Weak, especially doing CAD, and needing to load 3D models! And, with those weak specs I find it odd that it is dual monitor capable with a VGA and DVI port... I need to find a DVI-VGA adaptor and snag another monitor for that.

The other annoying thing is the mini keyboard it cam with and the fact that the fan inside is thermally regulated and it is always surging up and down! Makes the whole case rattle when it cranks up... Rolling the wheel on the mouse back and forth seems to be all that is necessary to make it happen, too! Laughing

No room for expansion either... well, except for its 8 onboard USB 2.0 ports...

BeerCheeze · Posted: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 18:58:37 Post Subject:

Yea they got a bunch of them running around the office here. Luckly we all get laptops though Grin

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:33:04 Post Subject:

What sucks is that according to the Dell site, this thing would cost about $750!! Compare that to a typical desktop from Dell and they could have sprung for a new monitor, too! I had to keep my washed out 19" CRT with two dead bands across it... Bang Head

Hellfire · Rated XXX Joined: 05 Aug 2003 Posts: 3473

Yea, sad to say we have Dell GX270's at work. They're ok for what my group does which is data analysis and data modeling, nothing graphic intensive. Saddest part is in a group of 50 people, we've burnt up 4 in the past 6 months! Literally had to have the motherboard/processor replaced!

trekrider · Posted: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 19:50:55 Post Subject:

Yeah, but the flat panel would have had 3~4 dead pixels in it anyway..................

HackaX0rus · Posted: Thu, 03 Feb 2005 21:11:08 Post Subject:

my shcoll jsut got 20 new compaqs but they suck...the only good thing is they put a 9600xt and firewire card in each. so when they not lookin i will have to h4x one. Laughing

school computers = t3h suckx0r.

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 04 Feb 2005 13:44:31 Post Subject:

I brought in a DVI-VGA adaptor, but it won't work on the few monitors I tried... Insists on a digital display for the second monitor... All my ATI, nVidia, and XGI experience never saw that happen.. Meh, oh well. Would have been cool.

Mosfet · Rated PG Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 9

heh.
My work finally upgraded me from a P3-500 to a Dell with 3ghz HT P4, 1gb ram, SATA, and a Quadro card (one of the ones with the dual head dongle) Razz

of course, it'd have been even nicer if they had upgraded the test lab server that runs 9 simultaneous VMWare sessions.

knight0334 · Posted: Thu, 10 Feb 2005 10:48:27 Post Subject:

I upgraded myself at work to 512MB of PC133 and a 700mhz PIII that I had laying around at home. ....Made a decent difference over the 256MB of PC133 and 600mhz PIII I had before.