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THE AM BULLETIN BOARD => QSO => Topic started by: N2DTS on September 28, 2015, 09:32:07 PM



Title: dell optiplex 790
Post by: N2DTS on September 28, 2015, 09:32:07 PM
I was working out at a customers and they had a pile of these computers laying around.
Very small size desk top computers, they had windoze 7 and intel I5 stickers on them.
Humm, I5, not bad, windoze 7 is stable.
Did some research and found nothing bad (for such a small unit).
Found some refurbished ones on ebay for just over $200.00 and bought one.
Arrived on my door in 2 days, was clean, its silent in operation, and twice as fast as my quad core current computer I use for sdr (sdr-iq).
8 gig of memory, 750 gig hard drive, its really small.
It runs my sdr-iq at 3% cpu.

While on the computer topic, about a year ago I got a chromebook (HP chromebook 14) in white.
I was looking for a lap top, but they are very expensive for a good one and I dislike microsoft for web use.

Best thing I have got for a long time, open the lid and its on, just where I left it, no boot up, no updates, no virus program needed, close the lid its off.
Very thin and light, 8 hour battery life, cool running, great wifi range.
Its NOT a computer, its a web browser in a box, but for 95% of what I do, its all I need.
E mail, web sites, video's, uploading pictures, its fast, safe, instant on.
About $200.00 new.


Title: Re: dell optiplex 790
Post by: flintstone mop on October 02, 2015, 04:16:13 PM
I have been relatively happy with the Optiplex series. If the box is miniaturized; then it is a Small Form Factor design. Meaning that any add-on boards you want to plug into the MB will have to be those smaller SFF boards. Easily available.
They seem to be the workhorse computer used in retail as a POS..point of service,  and may have an optical scanner board installed, or it was in a corproate setting sitting on 24/7.





Title: Re: dell optiplex 790
Post by: Jim, W5JO on October 02, 2015, 05:43:14 PM
I have an OptiPlex 755 that I purchased refurbished and it has not missed a beat.  I regularly pull the cover and, using a can of air, blow out the dust and accumulated crud.  I try to get at least 10 years use of a computer and this one is about 3. 

It came with Win 7 and I installed Win 10 when that became available.   There is not a lot of difference in the two systems, just repackaging which requires one to really dig deep to turn off all the information sharing and some other functions.  But it runs just fine on this machine and I think you will like the one you bought.


Title: Re: dell optiplex 790
Post by: N2DTS on October 02, 2015, 08:37:25 PM
Yes, it only has one open slot, so its limited, but its really small, silent, and it seems fast.
It got a much better score in most things then my AMD quad core bigger computer, but a LOT better score in the video department. More modern video chip I guess.

I was sort of tempted to pick up a flex 3000 or 5000 to see how it did.
The old quad core did fine, the I5 would do lots better.

A really good buy for the price, and I just missed out on an I7 version for $250.00.
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