I have a similar model, the Dell Optiplex 790 DT. It came with Windows 7 Pro x32 on the hard disk (no DVD). I upgraded to Win 7 Pro x64 and then to Windows 10 Pro x64. Bought it on the Dell Refurbished site for $250. I also swapped out the Dell DVD-Rom that comes with it for a BluRay drive. I added an LG WH14NS40 Internal SATA 14x Blu-ray Disc Rewriter. It was about $40 from Amazon. I have since added a 3-TB drive and 16gb (4x4gb) ram. I have Windows 10 and 6 or 7 Linux distros all booting through Grub2. My Optiplex came with an Intel i5-2400 CPU. I upgraded to the fastest CPU supported by the motherboard chipset, an Intel I7 2600. The motherboard doesn't support the K CPU's like i7 2700k.
I was recently looking for a low profile, low wattage, low cost video card for my Dell Optiplex 790 DT (small desktop, Intel i7 2600, 16gb ram, 3Tb WD hard disk, uses low profile video cards). It has a 235-watt power supply. Dell recommends a 35 watt or less video card. This was not for gaming, just for general web surfing and home office use. Here is a list I put together during my search of possible video cards to get. I ended up getting the AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphic Card (used from an Amazon reseller for $15). This video card works well with most Linux distros I have tried it with (about 10 Ubuntu based distros, drivers automatically installed) and Windows 7 and Windows 10. Once again, this was not for gaming, just for general web surfing and home office use. Dell Optiplex 790 DT (low profile) - possible low profile Video Cards ========================== Low Profile Video cards - sorted by PassMark Benchmark rating (high to low) Model - PassMark benchmark - Wattage used by card - Typical used price GeForce GT 720; benchmark 758 - 19 W -- $35.00 AMD Radeon R5 230 1GB DDR3; benchmark 424 - 19 W -- $35.00 GeForce GT 610 1024MB GDDR3; benchmark 357 - 29 W -- $35.00 Asus ATI Radeon HD6450 Silence 1 GB DDR3; benchmark 287 - 18 W -- $25.00 AMD Radeon HD 5450 Graphic Card; benchmark 231 - 19.1 W -- $25.00 Sapphire AMD FirePro 2270 1GB DDR3; benchmark 230 - 17 W -- $25.00 Radeon HD 6350 512MB ; benchmark 212 - 19.1 W -- $10.00 GeForce 210 Silent 1GB DDR3; benchmark 184 - 30.5 W -- $25.00 ASUS Radeon EAH4350 512MB DDR2; benchmark 177 - 20 W -- $20.00 ATI Radeon HD3470 256MB; benchmark 149 - 30 W -- $10.00 ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro 256MB; benchmark 126 - 14.8 W -- $15.00 ATI Radeon HD 3450 256MB DDR2 ; benchmark 124 - 25 W -- $10.00 GeForce 8400 GS 1 GB DDR3; benchmark 115 - 40 W -- $25.00
I have a tech problem, when ever I see a good deal I can't stop myself from buying it lol. I will be adding this unit to my bedroom TV and just keep it simple. The actual price I paid was 240 Canadian which I believe makes this around $165 US
I was not aware that was Canadian $, lol mybad. That's a pretty good price then, eh? More money to feed your moose then.
When I saw how much I couldn't let it go and after what you said I thought for a second wow it can be cheaper but its all good . Now I hoping to get a hdmi V card and it will work ok, its only going to be used in the bedroom tv
If you have a Windows 7 license key, you can do a clean install of Windows 10 and then activate the Windows 10 with your Windows 7 license key. No need to run an upgrade from 7 to 10.
Thanks for your respond but from Dell website it saying that they don't recommend upgrading to 10 since they wouldn't create any drivers for my unit. Also, I think windows 7 64bit probably will work best on this unit. All I want from this unit is be able to install a video card with hdmi port so I can hook it up to my bedroom tv, a little surfing and a lot of movies/tv shows from the internet. No gaming or anything else
Thanks for your input, curious how well does windows 10 64bit work on 4 gb ram? I know 7 64bit with 4gb ram is good enough. Cheapest card so far I found was this one SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 5450 DirectX 11 100292DDR3L 1GB 64-Bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card
Nothing does, but I don't want to get into spending more. My whole purpose in buying this unit was not to spend much and get it to do what I need. I already have 3 system running W10. 2 laptops and my main PC. So this Dell PC isn't going to get used much. I figure if I get a HDMI card it will satisfied my needs, thanks
I was considering the same purchase when I wanted to upgrade my trusty Dell 530 last year. The one thing that I wanted in a new system was support for USB 3.0 because trying to copy any large files became agony with USB 2.0. I figured the 10x performance was pretty much marketing hype, but any improvement would be welcome. Then I come to find out that Windows 7 doesn't natively support UBS 3.0 so I was really annoyed. But I was assured by Dell that the Inspiron 3000 series of computers had hardware support for USB 3.0 and Intel supplied the drivers. I was skeptical at first, but a little searching calmed my fears. I ended up getting the Inspiron 3000 i5 and I can report that the USB 3.0 support works just fine. So what's the big deal with USB 3.0 you might ask. My backup partition with data files, and software is about 80GB and once a week I like to copy it to an external drive. With USB 3.0 it takes 20 minutes, with USB 2.0 it took over 2 hours, and it was easier to remove the drive from the enclosure, and connect it to the system bus and use Acronis to image the internal drive to the USB drive, and then put it back in the case. Somewhat of a PITA but I was used to doing it that way. If you get a USB 3.0 flash drive the performance is as if you had the drive connected to the system bus. I get about 5GB/min transfer for multi gig transfers and 7-8GB/min for just a few files. The downside is that you will have to get all new USB 3.0 cables, new Flash Drives, and a new USB 3.0 enclosure if you want to have an external drive. And if you get a Dell 3000 like I did, you will be disappointed it the fact that Dell didn't put any of the USB 3.0 ports on the front panel, and you only get 2 on the rear panel so you have to fumble to insert the flash drive and/or the external cable. To solve that problem I got a USB 3.0 Male/Female cable along with the standard Male/Male cable so I can plug in the USB 3.0 flash drive without having to fumble around at the back of the case. And While I was at it, I assembled a System Bus extension cable, so when I want to image/clone my internal drive to a backup drive, I don't have to open the case to attach the cables. As the old saying goes..."If it's worth doing, it's worth over-doing" If you don't do any large file transfers, then USB 2.0 will be fine, but for my setup it's been worth the upgrade. And you can save yourself some money not having to upgrade cables and enclosures.