Dell Rebuilds...is it worth it?

[balootex]

Howdy,
My wife was given 2 Dell computers from her work, they are complete systems except the harddrives have been removed. These are models DA-2 and DCT they are the smaller proprietary units. And were working just fine up until they were replaced.

So, my questions are; are these worth putting money into them? Does any of you have experience with Dells? Are parts still available, I mean should I start with a new mother board…How much better can these units be made? And most important, how do I find out which parts will fit in these small cases?

What would you do with these? Even if I end up tossing these cases, I still got two 15” LCD monitors out of the deal. So be honest, would you build them up (if so go into detail) or would you toss them out (no detail needed, but if you have fun ways….).

Thanks,
Balootex

[photolady]

What models are these? DA-2 and DCT aren't Dell model numbers or names. Are they Optiplex? We need more info on the models and we can look up what they have and whether they'd be cost effective to upgrade them.

[rbc1100]

Most any SATA or PATA HD will work, depending on what the mainboard takes. If you have any HD's about then give it go and see what happens. If you don't have the OS disk or driver disk you will need to buy an OS and try to find drivers on Dells website. How old are these computers and what are the specs. ?

[Sarrkazztic]

Throw a hard drive in them and put as much ram as they will hold...they will make decent web surfing and email machines.

[Arkolyte]

I was given a couple of older Dells without HDDs myself: an Optiplex GX50 and a GX60. I threw some old drives I had sitting around in them and loaded up Linux. They can't do anything in the way of performance, but I use them for testing things and for email, web browsing, bit torrents, etc. and they work just fine. The GX60 received a video card and 2 GB RAM upgrade and can be used for World of Warcraft as well. Don't upgrade the motherboard and keep the case as you'd be better off just building a new system from scratch, but if you can find a use for them, don't just chuck em.

[Train]

Make nice data servers. You know to back up what you would just HATE to lose.

[balootex]

The model numbers are Optiplex SX270 & SX280. Ok, here is what I did. I buy the stuff on Ebay, yes, I'm cheep! I found a new 160gb harddrive for the 270 and I added 1gb DDR...That computer is running great.

With the 280 I added 250gb harddrive. But, for some reason it only shows about 137gb available in XP. In the bios it does show up as 250.

Any ideas on how to make the entire drive availible?

[Train]

Go into disk management and pick up the balance.

[balootex]

That was easy. Thanks!

[Train]

[balootex]

Yep, it worked. Well, I have one drive with 137gb and the other with 104, still a little short (missing 9gb) but I assume that is a system block and I figure if I get to where I'm going to run out of space on a 250gb hard drive...it might be time to upgrade again!

[Train]

LOL

No you are not missing a thing.

Engineering:
1 kb = 1000 b
1mb = 1000 kb
1gb = 1000 mb

where computer scientists like multiples of 2.
1 kb = 1024 b
1 mb = 1024 kb
1 gb = 1024 mb
hence 1 gig = 1,073,741,824 b


So 250 / 1.073 . . . . . = 233 GB

Seems your 250 is actually a 258 in size.