Fun With A Free PC

[jyl]

I haven't played w/ PCs for a very long time.

The biz down the hall from me moved out. I went over to say bye, he pointed to a bunch of computers and said one's not spoken for, you want it? So I got a free Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF desklop PC running Win 10. This is an older machine but decent, i5 processor and well made.

I don't really need it, but an older, retired, and barely getting by friend needs a PC. She's working for a horrible place and wants to try to start a small bookkeeping biz - she's a bookkeeper now. She's ordered a Lenovo workstation but it costs 1.5 months' rent for her, and she doesn't need all that power. She figured that she wants a good PC while she still has a wage, and she kind of got carried away after seeing by my Lenovo workstation.

(Mine is Xeon, 32 GB, double graphics cards, 3 SSDs in RAID, etc)

So I took the 9020 SFF and added 16 GB RAM for total 24 GB, installed a used Quadro P620 graphics card (can drive 4 monitors at 4K), put in a 1 TB SSD, and have a WiFi card on order. Total cost will be about $300.

I'll suggest she cancel her Lenovo order (delayed anyway), and take this little Dell. She'll have to buy monitors but they are cheap. I really think this will be all the PC she'll need for many years.

Now I'm having fun messing around with PCs and am fantasizing about building a bigger machine for myself.

[RWebb]

be sure to sanitize the HDD for her (and for the gifter)

[jyl]

There were no data folders on the original HDD - I think they kept everything on network storage.

I've gotten a brand new 1 TB SSD for her. Having problem installing Windows 10 on it - I thought I could connect the SSD externally, make it into a Recovery Drive, then boot from that and reinstall Win 10, but that option seems no longer available. There is an option is to restore from a Recovery Point but although I created one on the original HDD, that option isn't working either.

So I'll just sanitize the HDD as best I can, clone the HDD to the new SSD and get her running that way. Not ideal but I don't want to pay for a new Win 10 license. My generosity has its limits.

[LWJ]

Check out monitors at free geek. Should be cheap.

[wdfifteen]

You are a good man, helping her out like that. Fortunate for her you know what to do.

[masraum]

Very cool!

[jyl]

I think I convinced my friend to find this little PC a try. Unplugged the monitors from my workstation and plugged into the little Dell, sent her a pic. Now she gets it - no need to spend $1600, when $300 will done what you need

[RWebb]

you need more monitors

[jyl]

Originally Posted by RWebb

you need more monitors

My machine will drive eight 4K monitors, and I guess another from the IGP.

I don’t care about 4K but I do plan on adding four more monitors. The problem is figuring out where.

[RWebb]

the surface of the desk could be a display...

your quickie hp calculator would hide some of it tho

after that, you either need to fill the bexel area of the existing monitors with displays or grow more eyeballs