Dell Optiplex GX620 Refurbishment - 05/05/16
This is the oldest computer I currently own. When I found it, it had all of the components for a basic, low-end, office PC from the early 2000s. These components included an Intel Pentium 4 HT single-core 3.20GHz Processor, 1 out of 2 optical drives installed, 1 floppy drive installed, 1gb of DDR2 RAM, and a Dell 350W power supply.
I first swapped the generic Dell power supply with a 400watt Cooler Master power supply: this has more molex power connectors than the Dell unit, thus allowing for greater expansion potential. I then swapped out the 1gb of RAM with a spare 4gb kit. When found, this computer had had its hard drive removed for security reasons. I therefore installed one of my spare Seagate Barraccuda 80gb drives as the boot drive for the operating system. In this case, I installed Ubuntu Linux. Another important change which I made to this PC was the removal of the standard Dell DVD-ROM drive in favour of two DVD/RW drives both configured for master/slave IDE operation. This computer is from the time when SATA was used for a system's hard drive, but not for the optical drive(s).
This computer has a noticeably large heatsink and fan owing to the large heat output of an Intel Pentium 4. It also has a good way of removing/installing internal hard drives. This works by installing the drive into a caddy which then slides into the frame of the computer. The entire operation is toolless and the same can largely be said for the entire system.
The only trouble which I have regularly had with this machine is the fact that, owing to the large front cooling fan drawing in its air through a fine front vent mesh, the computer regularly collects dust between the bars of this vent. The fan in this computer is also, compared with newer Dell computers (such as my Optiplex 780), slightly loud, especially under load; but this is probably an inevitable consequence of the large thermal output associated with Intel Pentium processors of the era.