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The Dell Optiplex GX240 is a surprisingly impressive PC. The Optiplex line is Dell's business line. Optiplex PC's are very heavy
duty in design, and meant to take a fair amount of abuse.
You can tell a lot about about a PC by it's weight. It's easy to cut corners on
a PC. So much computing power is available from today’s
microprocessors and RAM that a computer doesn't have to be heavy to seem
impressive. But cutting corners can lead to problems later on. The Optiplex shouldn't disappoint.
You'll see a lot of Optiplex computers at places like Kinko’s and
public libraries. That suggests they are pretty reliable when a lot of
different people are using them.
Inside there's a good amount of room
if you need to plug cards into expansion slots. No wiggling cards around
tightly stretched internal cabling to get the card to line up with the
slot. there's lots of room.
The thing that I most appreciate
about the Dell is how quiet it is. Sometimes I couldn't even tell if it was on.
Some computers have noisy cooling fans that make the computer annoying to
work with for any length of time. This is probably the quietest computer
I've used (short of some Apples, which have no cooling fan).
The only complaint was a minor one.
The front USB ports were hard to see. They are pointed down and under a
cover. If the computer is on the floor, it's hard to plug in a device. A
USB extension cord left plugged in solved the problem.
I installed a
Hauppage TV card and plugged in cable TV. I used a Logitech keyboard which had
controls for muting the sound, and raising and lowering the volume. The
setup worked really well. It can be a great alternative to having a TV on,
since you're only using the amount of power you'd use if the computer was
on any way. TV's can use quite a bit of power, so the energy savings should
be substantial. Even with lots of programs running, including TV viewing,
the Dell didn't show any sign of not having enough computing power.
You can order a computer from Dell
and have it customized to a surprisingly high degree. For instance, you can
have Dell partition the hard drive at the factory to your specification. If
you ever want to install a second operating system such as Linux, one of
the harder parts is already done. Just about every conceivable customization
is available.
If you're tired of computers that
ultimately are frustrating or let you down, the Optiplex
is a refreshing find. If you go to Dell's website and click on the
"Home" computers, you won't see the Optiplex’s.
You need to click on the business link.
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