Optiplex GX280 - Should I upgrade it to Win7?

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  1. Posts : 552
    Windows 8 Pro x64
       #1

    Optiplex GX280 - Should I upgrade it to Win7?


    I have an old Optiplex GX280 with the following hardware:

    Intel Pentium 4 HT @ 3.2 GHz (1 core, 2 threads)
    2.5 GB of DDR2 (2x 1GB, 1x 512mb) (Supports up to 1GB x4)
    PNY Nvidia Geforce 9400GT 1GB GDDR3 (PCI-Express)
    Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3

    Obviously, I'd be putting on 32 bit if I were to upgrade it, but I'm not sure if I'd really gain anything performance-wise by putting on Windows 7. I've heard that it is faster than XP on machines that exceed the minimum system requirements and this PC obviously does. I bought it off eBay for $80, then put some upgrades in it. I added 2GB of RAM and the Nvidia card, which in total cost me $90 for those parts.
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  2. Posts : 5,795
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #2

    Let's just say, given the amount of memory, it wouldn't run any slower than XP. If it was me, I'd upgrade it if I had a license to spare. I don't know if I'd spend the money on Windows 7 for it, unless I got a great deal. You won't have any issues going to Windows 7, though.
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  3. Posts : 465
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Home Premium x64
       #3

    I would say depends on what you want to do with it. If you aren't planning on doing anything super serious with the computer and you don't have an extra Win 7 license, I would just leave it as is.
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  4. Posts : 650
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #4

    It should run really well on the specs you posted. Dealers choice since you already have a paid for install of XP.

    I probably would myself but it's a personal choice and I really like Windows 7 even on my older Dell C640 laptop which I upgraded from XP.
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  5. Posts : 552
    Windows 8 Pro x64
    Thread Starter
       #5

    bobtran said:
    It should run really well on the specs you posted. Dealers choice since you already have a paid for install of XP.

    I probably would myself but it's a personal choice and I really like Windows 7 even on my older Dell C640 laptop which I upgraded from XP.
    I have one of those. Latitude C640. It runs deathly slow on XP though with the 1.8 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB of RAM. How could it run 7 when it only supports a maximum of 1GB of RAM? I didn't think Windows 7 would run very well if you only barely meet the minimum RAM requirement.
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  6. Posts : 2,737
    Windows 7 Enterprise (x64); Windows Server 2008 R2 (x64)
       #6

    Windows i7 920 said:
    I have an old Optiplex GX280 with the following hardware:

    Intel Pentium 4 HT @ 3.2 GHz (1 core, 2 threads)
    2.5 GB of DDR2 (2x 1GB, 1x 512mb) (Supports up to 1GB x4)
    PNY Nvidia Geforce 9400GT 1GB GDDR3 (PCI-Express)
    Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3

    Obviously, I'd be putting on 32 bit if I were to upgrade it, but I'm not sure if I'd really gain anything performance-wise by putting on Windows 7. I've heard that it is faster than XP on machines that exceed the minimum system requirements and this PC obviously does. I bought it off eBay for $80, then put some upgrades in it. I added 2GB of RAM and the Nvidia card, which in total cost me $90 for those parts.
    I have installed Windows 7 on many GX280's runs very well for business. I would not suggest it for games, video editing, CAD work, etc. -WS
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 8,135
    Windows 10 64 bit
       #7

    Dell DOES NOT support Vista or Win 7 on this model. Thus there are no hardware drivers for any Dell proprietary hardware. You will be on your own to try and find drivers that will work for all the hardware. Dell only supports XP, NT4, Win 2000, DOS and Red Hat Linux 9.0.
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  8. Posts : 1,018
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1
       #8

    fireberd said:
    Dell DOES NOT support Vista or Win 7 on this model. Thus there are no hardware drivers for any Dell proprietary hardware. You will be on your own to try and find drivers that will work for all the hardware. Dell only supports XP, NT4, Win 2000, DOS and Red Hat Linux 9.0.
    That may be but generic drivers may more than make up for that. If anything, you can always try setting up a dual-boot to test 7 out before fully migrating to it.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 650
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #9

    Windows i7 920 said:
    bobtran said:
    It should run really well on the specs you posted. Dealers choice since you already have a paid for install of XP.

    I probably would myself but it's a personal choice and I really like Windows 7 even on my older Dell C640 laptop which I upgraded from XP.
    I have one of those. Latitude C640. It runs deathly slow on XP though with the 1.8 GHz Pentium 4, 512 MB of RAM. How could it run 7 when it only supports a maximum of 1GB of RAM? I didn't think Windows 7 would run very well if you only barely meet the minimum RAM requirement.
    You need to upgrade the bios to A10 and it will then accept/use 2gb of ram (2 x 1gb). You can also upgrade the cpu to a max of 2.6 Ghz cpu P4m (SL6WZ - hard to find but worth it).

    You can upgrade to any of these processors:

    Pentium 4-M 1.9 1900 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.0 2000 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.1 2100 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.2 2200 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.3 2300 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.4 2400 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.5 2500 512 400
    Pentium 4-M 2.6 2600 512 400

    Optiplex GX280 - Should I upgrade it to Win7?-c640-upgrades.png
    Optiplex GX280 - Should I upgrade it to Win7?-c640-upgrades2.png
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  10. Posts : 465
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64 and Home Premium x64
       #10

    fireberd said:
    Dell DOES NOT support Vista or Win 7 on this model. Thus there are no hardware drivers for any Dell proprietary hardware. You will be on your own to try and find drivers that will work for all the hardware. Dell only supports XP, NT4, Win 2000, DOS and Red Hat Linux 9.0.
    Actually, Dell wouldn't support it anyways. The Optiplex GX280 series computers are like 5 to 6 years old. Well outside their current support range unless you bought the extended warranty, but for the most part, they would urge you to a newer computer anyways.

    As for drivers in general... Once a computer is off their normal support life, they tend not to update the drivers even for the supported OS they post as there is rarely a need to keep the drivers up to date on models they no longer support. The support page will be up, but that is as far as they will support it and you are still on your own with drivers and the like. The pro of it all, though, is the older drivers will at least give people an idea of the hardware used like the Ethernet, the sound and board chipset versus bumbling around trying to figure it out by looking at the system board.
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