Computer Upgrade Project

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I love tinkering and have some computer knowledge.

I've found an Optiplex GX620. Opened it up and it looks pretty user friendly.

I wanted to boost the spec on it and install linux.

It has 256mb of ram that came as standard and a 80gb IDE harddrive. I've put in a 40gb SATA too and that's working. Think the processor is 3.2 ghz.

The plan is:
RAM
More RAM
At least 1 SATA 1tb harddrive
Generally improve the spec.

It's a project and would be good to see how much it can be improved. Is this a good place to start upgrading from? Or am I better off building completely from scratch (not something I've done before but I'm more than willing to try).

Any tips would be appreciated!
 
It all depends on what you want to use it for, and your budget - I've run various computers on Ubuntu and latterly Linux Mint - they both give a considerable boost in speed and reliability over the execrable Windoze, so whatever you run them on will be greatly improved.
I've built my own computers from scratch, and updated bought desktops and laptops - usually updating memory to the maximum possible will reap benefits, beyond that I don't think it's worthwhile spending a fortune on old machinery - perhaps get a 1Tb external drive for storage, and use that - then if you want to move over to another computer all your files are there ready to be used.

Whatever you're doing, look at the excellent "budget" models from Ebuyer that come without an operating system (usual disclaimers)- from as little as around £150 you can get a really good basic machine (you'll need to add keyboard, mouse and screen) - spend more than that, you can get a real flier (I doubt you could beat the prices if you bought the components and built it yourself)
 
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Organnyx said:
It all depends on what you want to use it for, and your budget - I've run various computers on Ubuntu and latterly Linux Mint - they both give a considerable boost in speed and reliability over the execrable Windoze, so whatever you run them on will be greatly improved.
I've built my own computers from scratch, and updated bought desktops and laptops - usually updating memory to the maximum possible will reap benefits, beyond that I don't think it's worthwhile spending a fortune on old machinery - perhaps get a 1Tb external drive for storage, and use that - then if you want to move over to another computer all your files are there ready to be used.

Whatever you're doing, look at the excellent "budget" models from Ebuyer that come without an operating system (usual disclaimers)- from as little as around £150 you can get a really good basic machine (you'll need to add keyboard, mouse and screen) - spend more than that, you can get a real flier (I doubt you could beat the prices if you bought the components and built it yourself)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. It was probably going to be a Ubuntu variant.

Haven't really got a set budget. Probably work on the principle of the cost of each component and whether the cost per piece is worth the outcome that piece will give. Have checked and its actually 2.8ghz so dependant on how it runs after the RAM upgrades will decide on whether that needs to be changed too.

In terms of use, there's nothing specific. I have a laptop and desktop with Lightroom and cs5 so my editing needs are covered. Can't see myself doing anything excessive on gimp. It's more of a "lets see where this can go." It's going to be an archive computer too with backups etc. Good point about the hard drive being ready to go.

I take it I should keep the small SATA as the primary drive with the 1tb backup in the 2nd slot to keep the big one easily transferable in future? IDE now isn't being found but will probably be able to lose that anyway.
 
You might like to try the other free Linux software available too - there's Darktable, Raw Therapee, Digikam (which is excellent) and several others. My suggestion would be to go for Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu), which has a very usable interface (in fact, a choice of several), whereas Ubuntu has to my mind lost the plot completely with their 'orrible "Unity" desktop... I've used the two of them for 5 years now, and whenever I use a Windoze machine I wonder what's wrong with it (so sloooow and clonky in comparison)

You can of course use another hard drive, and if you keep it for "storage", just swap it into a newer computer -
Best of luck, and happy tinkering!
 
I would also check what size hard disk the machine is capable of handling, if it has an 80Gb hard disk, it may not support 1tb and such a hard disk may have a detrimental effect on the performance of the computer. We had some cheap sc series dell servers which I believe are from the same era and increasing the hard disk from 250gb to 750Gb slowed down the hard disk access.
 
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