RIP - Dell GX620 - Link Box

[CDale]

For the past year and a half I have used a Dell GX620 as a link box. The box was purchased on EBay at a very reasonable price ... and worked great. The Dell GX620 passed away this past week. Dell tech support (and diagnostics disk) pronounced the motherboard dead.

I began a search for a replacement motherboard. Dell's price on a JD961 motherboard is $251. Ridiculous I thought ... I could find a better deal. Unfortunately, I can't find a better deal. Refurbished for $149 is the best I can find ... and I would prefer a new board.

This leads in to my questions.

1) Does anyone know of a Dell junkyard (seller) of MB parts at a reasonable price?

2) Should I just build a new link box? I have not kept up with MBs and the latest hardware and would need recommendations on specs for a link box.

I would prefer XP-PRO (only because have used in the past), AMD chip, micro ATX MB with VGA, DVI and HDMI video out. The machine would only be used as a BTV link machine. Or would Vista be a better choice at this point?

Thanks for your recommendations.

CDale

[Bigbird999]

The Gigabyte 780 boards http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2758 meets your specs, work great and are sub $100.
but I think tscales, the resident Dell guru, has a new favorite/cheap Dell. Search his posts

BB

[mayhem70]

Check at the outlet center. Outlet.dell.com

[Nacho]

I read that the GX620 will not play HD-PVR files, so if you are looking into ever migrating to that path, this might be the opportunity to upgrade your Link computer to something more powerfull.

I know these machines are small and quiet (I have two myself), but they are preventing me from buying the HD-PVR as I want be able to play the recordings...

[Fickey]

Lots of hits on Google shopping, sorry if I posted the obvious:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...html&scoring=p

[blaze818]

i am with nacho i would go for it and buy a new system, eventually (i would imagine) you will want to get a HD PVR or record HD OTA and in that case you will need to find a new setup.

for the link box you will only really need to worry about getting a nice video card that will handle HD content any new mobo and cpu on newegg will be good enough these days. good luck! and when you get it finished you should post pictures of your setup on the "rig pictures" thread!

[CDale]

Originally Posted by Fickey

Lots of hits on Google shopping, sorry if I posted the obvious:
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en...html&scoring=p

Thanks for the information ... the motherboard is Dell part # JD961

I really don't understand why the board is so expensive other than it is probably unique to this machine. See http://www.google.com/products?q=GX6...rd+JD961&hl=en

[CDale]

Originally Posted by Bigbird999

The Gigabyte 780 boards http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/...ProductID=2758 meets your specs, work great and are sub $100.
but I think tscales, the resident Dell guru, has a new favorite/cheap Dell. Search his posts

BB

BB,

Thanks for the information on the motherboard. The previous sytems I've built used a NVidia chipsets. I've read about the 780 chipset. I'll price out a system this weekend. Hmm, the chase is half the fun. What size power supply would you recommend for a low wattage AMD chip?

CDale

[CDale]

Originally Posted by blaze818

i am with nacho i would go for it and buy a new system, eventually (i would imagine) you will want to get a HD PVR or record HD OTA and in that case you will need to find a new setup.

for the link box you will only really need to worry about getting a nice video card that will handle HD content any new mobo and cpu on newegg will be good enough these days. good luck! and when you get it finished you should post pictures of your setup on the "rig pictures" thread!

Thanks for the input ... With help from the forum, I have talked myself into building another machine. I'll post a picture when the build is finished.

CDale

[tscales]

OK, since i'm quoted, I'll weigh in

The GX620 will play HD PVR files that have been compressed to Divx HD (High). That's what I do. I have not yet tested it, but will soon, but suspect it will play native files when running Windows 7. I've been stunned what my laptop running Win7 would do.

Now, if you're willing to gamble, there are USFF motherboards on ebay for $60 or so. For a little more, you can get a GX745 motherboard, which would slightly upgrade the video (but might not take the same CPU -- I don't know).

I recently needed a new machine and chose the Dell XPS Studio 540s. It's small, but not as small, but included both an HDMI output ATI video card AND a Blu Ray drive. More expensive at around $450 at the outlet, but one heck of a powerful machine. I like it a lot.

Tom

[ccarlin]

buy.com is unloading a bunch of refurbs of this with the Intel 950 and a 3Ghz processor for around $270 with free shipping.

Dell OptiPlex GX620 Desktop PC, Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz, 2GB, 400GB HDD, DVD/CD-RW, Microsoft Windows XP Pro w/ Recovery CD (Factory Refurbished), 1-Year Warranty - DELL/GX620-R - DELL/GX620-R - Buy.com

[Zaap]

That's actually pretty steep for a P4 and Intel 950 graphics.

In the low $300 range one can build a box with a dual-core Pentium, DVI and VGA, and a better chipset than the 950, more/faster RAM, and SATA.

[Jakesty]

But those Dells will include an OS. There's $90 right there you have to add just to get XP home.

[Zaap]

True- good point.

But these days I tend to be thinking toward Win 7 and not XP anyway. There's still some time to enjoy the RC1 for free. Not sure how well 7 would fare on a clunky old P4, but a modern dual core Pentium 775 runs it just fine.

[mercuri]

for anyone having issues with these boards...if you're at all handy with a soldering iron you can replace the 8 capacitors (available in any component shop) in front of the processor and bring it back to life. I've done it with 3 machines of this vintage now. best 10 bucks I've ever spent.