You'd think that after spending so much on a new gaming PC, I would be
done with scrounging discarded PCs from the curb and bins... but you'd
be wrong. What can I say? I love playing with hardware almost as much
as I enjoy playing games on them.


This week's haul was a slightly grubby Dell Optiplex 755. At 14 years
old, it's Core2 Duo processor is a bit behind the times, but it's
still works as an office PC. The HDD was DOA (probably why the machine
was junked), and somebody - perhaps the original owner - had pillaged
the video-card (according to the specs, a Radeon HD 2400XT), but it
has onboard video too, so I was able to get it up and working. It
could a thorough scrub and I slotted in an old HDD I had laying about
(a piddling 80GB SATA1 drive). Its currently running Windows 7.

But despite the work I've put into it, this PC isn't joining my herd.
A friend recently admitted they were interested in learning more about
PC hardware, and I offered them this machine as "fuck around and find
out" test-bench for them to play with. It will never be a powerhouse,
and it's abysmal for games, but for fiddling around with? Better than
messing with your main PC, anyway. And if not? Well, it was destined
for eWaste anyway...

Meanwhile, I got to play around with another PC. So it's win-win all
around!


I also got an offer for a 4K 27" monitor. Haven't picked it up yet,
but if it is in working condition (you're never sure with these
offers) it'll be the most modern display I have (everything else I own
is old-fashioned HD)

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Core 2 Duo's were workhorses. Probably still very viable for a lot of uses

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On Thu, 8 Jun 2023 08:08:55 -0700 (PDT), Shinnokxz
<shinnokxz@gmail.com> wrote:

Core 2 Duo's were workhorses. Probably still very viable for a lot of uses

It's not a bad PC all around. Its previous owner had even gotten
Windows10 to run on it; not bad for a PC from 2009. As an office
machine, it was just adequate, but you don't need a lot of horsepower
to open Word documents and email.

As a gaming rig, though, it's hopeless. I don't know how capable the
missing Radeon 2400XT card was, but the integrated video (Intel Q35
chipset) is hopeless. It barely squeaks a playable framerate for
2000-era games; for anything in the last 20 years (or even YouTube) it
hasn't a chance. The 5400rpm SATA-1 mechanical drive probably isn't
helping either (hey, I'm giving this PC away, I'm not throwing in a
working SSD too ;-)

But, as I said, the intent is for this computer to be a test rig for
somebody who wants to learn about upgrading PCs, and this is as good a
starting point as anywhere. They can replace that slow-ass HDD; they
can find a GPU, they can replace the power supply. Overclock the CPU,
discover the joys of drivers, install Linux... whatever. Dells are
remarkably robust machines, and it's not like they are losing anything
if they screw things up and kill the mainboard. Certainly it's better
than screwing up their 'main' PC.

And who knows, maybe they'll find a actual use for it too. Like you
said, the CPU is still capable.

And better all that than just ending up in the garbage stream. At the
very least, if the machine goes tits-up, I know it will be properly
sorted into eWaste rather than regular trash. So that's a plus too.

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Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

On Thu, 8 Jun 2023 08:08:55 -0700 (PDT), Shinnokxz
<shinnokxz@gmail.com> wrote:

Core 2 Duo's were workhorses. Probably still very viable for a lot of uses

It's not a bad PC all around. Its previous owner had even gotten
Windows10 to run on it; not bad for a PC from 2009. As an office
machine, it was just adequate, but you don't need a lot of horsepower
to open Word documents and email.

I don't know, Word is pretty heavy. Maybe opening *simple* Word
documents? Email can be pretty heavy too with all the HTML.

My wife had an old Core 2 Quad system until a few years ago. I remember
we tried to create a little Word doc with it, since it had some version
of Office installed. The document was just a kind of instruction booklet
with some photos and a little text. I remember especially getting the
pictures in was really painful and slow. But I guess this is content
creation and needs a beefy rig 8-|

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Anssi Saari <anssi.saari@usenet.mail.kapsi.fi> wrote:

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> writes:

On Thu, 8 Jun 2023 08:08:55 -0700 (PDT), Shinnokxz
<shinnokxz@gmail.com> wrote:

Core 2 Duo's were workhorses. Probably still very viable for a lot of uses

It's not a bad PC all around. Its previous owner had even gotten
Windows10 to run on it; not bad for a PC from 2009. As an office
machine, it was just adequate, but you don't need a lot of horsepower
to open Word documents and email.

I don't know, Word is pretty heavy. Maybe opening *simple* Word
documents? Email can be pretty heavy too with all the HTML.

Well, old versions of Word/Office like 2007 which I still use! Plain
text e-mails?

My wife had an old Core 2 Quad system until a few years ago. I remember
we tried to create a little Word doc with it, since it had some version
of Office installed. The document was just a kind of instruction booklet
with some photos and a little text. I remember especially getting the pictures in was really painful and slow. But I guess this is content
creation and needs a beefy rig 8-|

What versions were her softwares?
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On Friday, June 9, 2023 at 1:15:47 AM UTC-6, Anssi Saari wrote:

My wife had an old Core 2 Quad system until a few years ago. I remember
we tried to create a little Word doc with it, since it had some version
of Office installed. The document was just a kind of instruction booklet with some photos and a little text. I remember especially getting the pictures in was really painful and slow. But I guess this is content creation and needs a beefy rig 8-|

I wouldn't dare try to to run any sort of current Office 365 suite on anything less than a 7th gen i3. Microsoft is gangbusters with how that software runs and updates in the background.

Office 2007 like someone mentioned should work as good as anything.

They are still viable, low power CPUs would make a great linux system doing something

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ant@zimage.comANT (Ant) writes:

My wife had an old Core 2 Quad system until a few years ago. I remember
we tried to create a little Word doc with it, since it had some version
of Office installed. The document was just a kind of instruction booklet
with some photos and a little text. I remember especially getting the
pictures in was really painful and slow. But I guess this is content
creation and needs a beefy rig 8-|

What versions were her softwares?

I can't remember, probably about the same age as the computer, like 2007
maybe.

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