Optiplex GX520 Teardown + Revival (if it even can be done...)

[MDPS]

"WHAT 'CHOO DOIN WIT A GX520 FROM THE DARK DAYS (2006ish)?!" Well, I suppose this needs a little backstory, so sit tight.

  I know the owners of this small cloud storage/other IT stuff business, and they've got quite the ancient-times collection of Dell/HP Computers. Well, I was doing my own little salvaging project with a friend, and they offered to give us a random Optiplex to mess around with. Well, they did. And it was crap. I simply took the Hard Drive (and floppy drive, of course) and let it sit in a corner.

 

BUT NO MORE!

I shall revive this old beast, Celeron and all! Huzzah!

 

So the main point of this build log? Um...for science? Sure, lets go with that.

Pics coming soon as I begin the teardown process, and then eventually see what I can do to rebuild it.

FOR SCIENCE!*

*Because why else?

Specs:

CPU: Pentium 4 630 @3.00GHz

CPU Cooler: Stock (You'll see it in the pics)

Motherboard: Some random BTX thing

HDD: WD Blue Caviar 40GB (subject to upgrade...maybe)

RAM: We'll see if I can find something <533MHz

GPU: Onboard

Floppy Drive: Yes

PSU: Stock 230W with its own MOLEX COVERS (aww yeah)

Case: Optiplex GX520 (What were you expecting, a Level 10 TE?)

OS: Probably Fedora

 

EDIT: This build was definitely not sponsored by Dell.

 

[PlayStation 2]

throw a damn core 2 duo in it

[MDPS]

Here's the overview of the PC; case and internals.

Here it is...

Simple latch to open the side:

And here's the inside (Funny thing about this first pic, it was too big to upload so I cropped a bit off the left and it was fine. Just thought I'd mention why the length is shorter than the others):

Unfortunately it doesn't have PCI-e, so I'm sticking to onboard for graphics.

Drive bay slots are interesting. Simple clip and slide in. No screws necessary (neat).

And here's the amazing 230W PSU (with molex covers )

I'll be working on the teardown next, where I take it apart basically and make sure everything POSTs externally (and get a look at how the BTX board + CPU cooler connect). Then, if all goes well, I'll be off shopping for RAM!

[MDPS]

throw a damn core 2 duo in it

I'm trying to get as close as possible to the original build (hence 'Restoration') to see if I can get it working. I probably will make a change to that later on but for now, the Celeron will do.

[Atoss]

 throw a damn core 2 duo in it

As far as I know, the motherboard doesn't support any Core-series processors. Might be mistaken though, as I don't remember where I found it out, but it definatley wasn't practical testing.

However, some of these GX520s actually had a Pentium D inside (I have one such example lying on the floor beside me), instead of a Celeron, so if you want to squeeze out SOME more juice out of the rig, you can slap that in and it'll still be authentic.

[MDPS]

As far as I know, the motherboard doesn't support any Core-series processors. Might be mistaken though, as I don't remember where I found it out, but it definatley wasn't practical testing.

However, some of these GX520s actually had a Pentium D inside (I have one such example lying on the floor beside me), instead of a Celeron, so if you want to squeeze out SOME more juice out of the rig, you can slap that in and it'll still be authentic.

I'll give it a shot and see how it goes later on!

[iHardware Shelden]

As far as I know, the motherboard doesn't support any Core-series processors. Might be mistaken though, as I don't remember where I found it out, but it definatley wasn't practical testing.

However, some of these GX520s actually had a Pentium D inside (I have one such example lying on the floor beside me), instead of a Celeron, so if you want to squeeze out SOME more juice out of the rig, you can slap that in and it'll still be authentic.

This is correct, the chipset on the 520s only supports up to the Pentium D 9xx series. He could pick up a 755 board and use that, they are super cheap on ebay and support Core 2 series with 1333Mhz FSB if I remember correctly.

[MDPS]

This is correct, the chipset on the 520s only supports up to the Pentium D 9xx series. He could pick up a 755 board and use that, they are super cheap on ebay and support Core 2 series with 1333Mhz FSB if I remember correctly.

I think I'll keep the BTX board I have and get some 533MHz FSB with the Celeron. Alternatively, I'll try the Pentium later on but for now the config it was built with will suffice.

[iHardware Shelden]

I think I'll keep the BTX board I have and get some 533MHz FSB with the Celeron. Alternatively, I'll try the Pentium later on but for now the config it was built with will suffice.

Awesome, get some more life out of that system Oh also if it is one o the smaller form factor ones I would recommend flipping the CPU fan around to suck air in the back and out the front. This will help keep the chipset and capacitors from overheating especially if you get the Pentium D, you could also mod a case fan in the back  

[MDPS]

Awesome, get some more life out of that system Oh also if it is one o the smaller form factor ones I would recommend flipping the CPU fan around to suck air in the back and out the front. This will help keep the chipset and capacitors from overheating especially if you get the Pentium D, you could also mod a case fan in the back

Problem with that is that its a prebuilt, meaning the cooler is a special kind of stock. It can't be flipped or it'll interfere with the capacitors and other bits. Luckily, the heatsink cover is plastic so it shouldn't be too hard to cut off the excess. And a back case fan mod sounds great! Thanks! WIll be beginning the teardown and any mods soon (later today probably).

[iHardware Shelden]

Problem with that is that its a prebuilt, meaning the cooler is a special kind of stock. It can't be flipped or it'll interfere with the capacitors and other bits. Luckily, the heatsink cover is plastic so it shouldn't be too hard to cut off the excess. And a back case fan mod sounds great! Thanks! WIll be beginning the teardown and any mods soon (later today probably).

oh no, the fan on those optiplexs can be changed around, you just have to remove the heat sink and it re-mount the fan in the shroud, no modding needed

 

[MDPS]

oh no, the fan on those optiplexs can be changed around, you just have to remove the heat sink and it re-mount the fan in the shroud, no modding needed

 

Oh I thought you meant flip the entire heatsink and cut off the shroud. this makes more sense though

[iHardware Shelden]

Oh I thought you meant flip the entire heatsink and cut off the shroud. this makes more sense though

Yea my fault, worded that wrong But ya I would definitely recommend it

[MDPS]

UPDATE: The geniuses at Dell decided to freaking STUD the back panel to the case, so the breakdown may not happen. I really wanted to do an external POST but have no way to get the mobo/CPU cooler out at all...literally. I'll see what I can do.

 

P.S. The guy who screwed in the motherboard should be given an anti-break-in medal.

[MDPS]

UPDATE: (Apologies for the varying image sizes. The 2MB upload limit really threw off all my 2.01MB pictures my camera loves to take)

It's time to take this thing apart, in all its ancient time 5-pin fan header glory.

So, first thing I did was take out the 3.5" drive bays.

Didn't get me too far, but its a start. Next up is PSU (its top mounted and so out of the way for the most part).

But of course Dell couldn't make it easy like using *just* screws. Instead there's also a push-down tab here (yes I did hurt my thumb pushing it while rolling the PSU out).

And here it is. The 230W is free.

Next! Onto the CPU heatsink and fan. Heatsink is separate (it screws in directly through the motherboard standoffs. BTX of course) so I started with that.

And its off! But you see that dust on the side? Yeah, that's not dust. That's literally caked on dirt. This is why I'm disassembling it and cleaning it instead of throwing RAM in and just going for it, if anyone was wondering.

But after some cleaning, it'll be good enough to use again (at least for a Celeron D).

Now to check and see how the CPU itself is, and luckily, besides some thermal solution begging for re-application, it all looks good to go. The inner socket pins are also in mint condition.

Great, now to take off the shroud and cooling fan, whose locking system I am not a fan of.

Got that out, and now its time for the motherboard. I was a little worried a first...

GJ Dell

I think it'll work though. Just need to get it out without damaging anything.

Huzzah! It's out!

By the by, this is their "standoff".

But hey, if it works, it works.

 

I also took off the outer back panel, for cleaning purposes and also for modding purposes. I'll need it off if I'm going to put a rear-mounted fan on.

Got it off, and I found out why the back panel wasn't budging during my earlier attempts to get it off...

 

And so all is ready to go. I ended up leaving the front I/O chip in just for simplicity sake, as I don't need to tear apart the front of the case just for that.

 

So that's all for now. I'm going on a Thanksgiving vacation tomorrow so I'll be (maybe ) modding the case and reassembling the GX520 when I get back. See ya'll!

Would've said "Happy Thanksgiving!" but I'm on a Canadian based forum, so idk how that would've turned out.

[iHardware Shelden]

Sweeeeeettttttt

[MeDownYou]

I have 2 of these sitting next to me right now, Looks like you're doing alright, looking forward to see the changes though.

[MDPS]

HUGE UPDATE: So I finally got around to cleaning off the thermal compound on the CPU and what do I find?

That's right, we have a Pentium 4 630. Still not a decent CPU, but it probably beats a Celeron. I'll probably be upgrading to a dual-core Pentium anyways, but this is still pretty good news.

[iHardware Shelden]

Yes, much better than the Celeron

[simson0606]

you could definitely upgrade it to a hyperthreaded p4 but i'm not sure if a c2d is possible on that board

[iHardware Shelden]

you could definitely upgrade it to a hyperthreaded p4 but i'm not sure if a c2d is possible on that board

That P4 is hyperthreaded Also this particular boards chipset does not support anything higher than the Pentium D 9xx series due to its age.