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Off-lease business-class hardware is a goldmine. I've converted several old Dell Dimensions and Optiplex machines into decent gaming machines by adding a GPU an

Off-lease business-class hardware is a goldmine. I've converted several old Dell Dimensions and Optiplex machines into decent gaming machines by adding a GPU and a higher-end CPU.

bserge 5y ago
smackeyacky 5y ago
OP here. My office is populated pretty much exclusively with older HP gear. Some resellers offer 2 year warranties making them extremely attractive compared to buying something new. Mostly I reformat the drives and install Debian on them, which is always an instant 30% speed increase for development work. Can't say I have done a lot of gaming on them. The laptop from the article does have Wolfenstein "The New Order" from 2014 on it that I did for an experiment, and it's surprisingly snappy. As development machines though, just unbeatable.
LogicWolfe 5y ago
This is true with ultra books as well. 3 or 4 year old Thinkpad X1 Carbons or XPS 13s are an easy cost savings and quality improvement compared to low or even midrange contemporary competitors.
- grumpyprole 5y ago
  Batteries last 3-4 years and can already be very hard to get hold off after that time. I had a tough time sourcing a genuine replacement battery for my 4 year old X1 Carbon. It's a shame as otherwise the user replaceable battery would be a huge advantage over e.g. a MacBook.
- t0mas88 5y ago
  The older XPS "developer edition" models with a lot of ram and an SSD also make very good home servers. Power usage at idle is a fraction of what you would otherwise use and the performance is great.
bluedino 5y ago
My main machine is an HP Elitedesk I saved from the dumpster at work (actually paid $30 for it). Upgraded with spare parts like an SSD and 32GB memory, it has an i7. It's not the fastest machine in the world but it does everything I need it to do while being fairly compact and quiet. Slightly surprised to find out it's 8 years old.
kcb 5y ago
I'm a big fan of the few generations old ultra small form factor machines. They're what I recommend to anyone specifically looking for a general purpose/small business desktop.
- gorgoiler 5y ago
  Do you have any specific recommendations, particularkt for running Linux? I’m on an M93p at the moment but would like a faster browser experience.
__MatrixMan__ 5y ago
My impression while doing that was that Dell was designing for incompatibility to avoid their business-class stuff from watering down demand for their Alienware line. I couldn't get a PSU's that had enough power for a decent GPU while also fitting in the wonky proprietary slot. Nothing a Dremel tool couldn't solve, but almost annoying enough to let the bastards win and buy separate stuff.

Off-lease business-class hardware is a goldmine. I've converted several old Dell Dimensions and Optiplex machines into decent gaming machines by adding a GPU and a higher-end CPU.

bserge 5y ago

smackeyacky 5y ago

OP here. My office is populated pretty much exclusively with older HP gear. Some resellers offer 2 year warranties making them extremely attractive compared to buying something new. Mostly I reformat the drives and install Debian on them, which is always an instant 30% speed increase for development work. Can't say I have done a lot of gaming on them. The laptop from the article does have Wolfenstein "The New Order" from 2014 on it that I did for an experiment, and it's surprisingly snappy. As development machines though, just unbeatable.

LogicWolfe 5y ago

This is true with ultra books as well. 3 or 4 year old Thinkpad X1 Carbons or XPS 13s are an easy cost savings and quality improvement compared to low or even midrange contemporary competitors.

grumpyprole 5y ago
Batteries last 3-4 years and can already be very hard to get hold off after that time. I had a tough time sourcing a genuine replacement battery for my 4 year old X1 Carbon. It's a shame as otherwise the user replaceable battery would be a huge advantage over e.g. a MacBook.
t0mas88 5y ago
The older XPS "developer edition" models with a lot of ram and an SSD also make very good home servers. Power usage at idle is a fraction of what you would otherwise use and the performance is great.

bluedino 5y ago

My main machine is an HP Elitedesk I saved from the dumpster at work (actually paid $30 for it). Upgraded with spare parts like an SSD and 32GB memory, it has an i7. It's not the fastest machine in the world but it does everything I need it to do while being fairly compact and quiet. Slightly surprised to find out it's 8 years old.

kcb 5y ago

I'm a big fan of the few generations old ultra small form factor machines. They're what I recommend to anyone specifically looking for a general purpose/small business desktop.

gorgoiler 5y ago
Do you have any specific recommendations, particularkt for running Linux? I’m on an M93p at the moment but would like a faster browser experience.

__MatrixMan__ 5y ago

My impression while doing that was that Dell was designing for incompatibility to avoid their business-class stuff from watering down demand for their Alienware line. I couldn't get a PSU's that had enough power for a decent GPU while also fitting in the wonky proprietary slot. Nothing a Dremel tool couldn't solve, but almost annoying enough to let the bastards win and buy separate stuff.