I have several Optiplex GX520's. They are the "large" towers but also stripped
down. Only two RAM slots installed and the PCIe x16 slot was left out. They
were in the end of the availability of XP where buyers had a choice between XP
or Vista.
What cuts the value of these Optiplex boxes is the BTX form factor and the
funky proprietary power switch board and how it connects to the main board.
Dell just couldn't be satisfied with a simple momentary switch and a pair of
wires... If you can find a new BTX board for upgrading, you also have to
re-engineer the power button.
I also have some MPC (formerly micronPC) towers that are also BTX but better
equipped and without silly switch shenanigans.
BTX *should have* replaced ATX but like the 2.88M floppy the majority of the
industry flat out rejected the better technology.
Remember the original idiocy of the ATX design placing the CPU below the power
supply and expecting to "cool" it by blowing on it with air warmed by passing
through the power supply? I fixed many of those overheating PCs by installing a
CPU fan then flipping the power supply fan to blow out, and sealing all the
interior slots and holes in the PS with aluminum tape so all the air from that
fan would go through the PS and out the back. Turned many a glitchy box into a
solid performer.
BTX addressed all the issues of the AT and ATX style by placing the CPU in a
center/rear position with a large heat sink plus a larger, slower fan behind
it, blowing air directly out of the case. There's also nothing blocking air
being drawn into the front side of the CPU heat sink. BTX also corrects the
wrong way up nature of PCI and later cards by putting the motherboard on the
other side of the case so that the component side of expansion cards faces up
instead of down. I always thought it was dumb to make PCI, then AGP cards
backwards from ISA, EISA and VLB. When the first desktop got tipped on end to
make a tower, it was logically done the way that put the components on the up
side of the ISA cards so heat could easily rise up and away. Until BTX the
industry kept building towers like desktops on their left ends, even in boxes
with only PCI and an AGP slot. And they're still doing it with ones that are
all PCI and PCI Express. BTX corrects the illogical designs and gets rejected.
:P
From: Jon Elson <[email protected]>
To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, May 6, 2016 9:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Emc-users] Appropriate PCs
On 05/06/2016 01:55 AM, Danny Miller wrote:
> I understand the computational requirements are not stressful, but I
> know some have management issues.
>
> Right now I have a old Dell computer with one of the chipsets
> specifically listed as "bad". I'm running Linux RT and LinuxCNC 2.7.4
> with a 7i92 card but the latency report is pretty high. I don't have
> any love for this PC anyhow. Had it crash once, may be going south
> anyhow. Wanna get a small SSHD too.
>
>
You don't say what model. I've had really good luck with
Dell Optiplex GX260 and GX270 machines here that are quite
good. They are a bit old, now, however. I use them with
hardware motion controls, so the latency is not so critical
as for software step generation. Note that these Optiplex
models come in 3 sizes. SFF is very compact, but uses a
laptop-style CD reader and only one spot for hard drive.
The mini-tower is a bit bigger inside and has room for a
little expansion, and then there's the full-size tower, but
those may be rare versions.
Jon
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