that's practically a modern computer.

flip it and sell it for a profit

Agreed, I'm in the market for a LGA-1366 system but prices haven't dropped enough yet. They may be in the old category but not obsolete.
I'm hoping when Win7 goes EOL next year kill's the value of this era hardware.

Sell it

I figure spending about 300.00 in all plus maybe a little more if I upgrade the cpu to like a xeon x5675. Always wanted to try out
a xeon, never had one. This computer was what I used at work 6 yrs. ago, it served me well and I really liked win7 whereas I
abhor win10 with all it's "tentacles".

The other reason is I'm wanting to do this is the prospect of spending 1500 bucks on a new system is hard to swallow being a
cheapskate. So I thought in the meantime fix this one up so I could have a step up from my xp system and be able try out
some semi-modern titles.

On a side note, this thing is dirty, dusty & needs a good cleaning inside. How do you recommend doing it? Alcohol bath or
plain water in a tub for mobo? Air clean case & wipe down with water? Any tips would be welcome!

Really not worth spending $300 on this at all... you can get better and newer machines for half that cost.

For $300, you could potentially purchase a 4th-gen i5/i7 Dell box on eBay and still have $150 left over to drop in a GPU.

mcj wrote:

For $300, you could potentially purchase a 4th-gen i5/i7 Dell box on eBay and still have $150 left over to drop in a GPU.

Only problem with newer dells they have a weird power supply connection on the mobo, if you know of any models that are an exception to
this let me know.

buckeye wrote:

This computer was what I used at work 6 yrs

Totally get this, sentimental reasons are valid reason to go above economical costs

buckeye wrote:

I really liked win7 whereas I abhor win10

Also get this

buckeye wrote:

cheapskate

Yep so am I, and that's where the problem is.
You can "rip yourself off" and spend the $300, justifying the extra cost to save something that means more to you then the 4th gen Dell.

The cheapskate in me says do what I'm doing. I've a few similar era Precision T5500's put away for a project few years down the track when prices drop
For now I'm using a Socket 775 running a Xeon x3320 which can be had for next to nothing, it was a simple drop in upgrade in my Asus P5KPL-AM motherboard which I have since upgraded to a Asus P5N-D just because I wanted SLI, again just drop it in and good to go.

Third option is somewhere in the middle, just get whats required to get the system running and wait a few years for the CPU and GPU upgrades.

For cleaning I take everything out and wash the case in the bath as I live in a flat, otherwise hose in the garden works just as well, Oven cleaner works well water isn't cutting it.
I use a soft brush to dust motherboards and cards. I'm still not brave enough to wash them yet even though I know its fine.
Damp cloth is enough to wipe down things with big flat surfaces like CD drives, hard drives.

There are ATX adapters for those 4th gen optiplexes... they go for $7 on ebay