Dell GX260 SFF

[zzpanic]

I've recently set up a Dell GX260 small form factor computer for use with minimyth, and it went painlessly. My config is P4 1.8 GHz, 512 DDR, Nvidia FX 5200 Video (Low profile)

I got the low profile card buy buying one that had a low profile card, and removing the vga port from the top and bending the backplate over. Worked a treat.

Everything "just worked" on the first boot, sound, net, video. It is silent (well we can't hear the fans spinning) and lives on the drawers at the end of the bed. Our 34cm CRT tv fits perfectly on top of it. We don't bother turning off the minimyth frontend, since it doesn't bother us while it is on.

You can pick these up cheaply on ebay (mine cost AU$81 with no drives or ram), just make sure you get one that you can afford to upgrade the ram to 512MB on, some of them use PC800 RDRAM which costs an arm and a leg. (GX240)

http://search.ebay.com.au/search/search.dll?from=R40&satitle=dell+gx260

[zzpanic]

Some stuff that might be useful for Pablo...

Code: Select all

root@mince:~ $ dmidecode -t baseboard
# dmidecode 2.8
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0200, DMI type 2, 8 bytes
Base Board Information
        Manufacturer: Dell Computer Corporation
        Product Name: OptiPlex GX260
        Version: Not Specified
        Serial Number: Not Specified

Handle 0x0A00, DMI type 10, 6 bytes
On Board Device Information
        Type: Video
        Status: Disabled
        Description: Intel 845G PCI Accelerated SVGA

Handle 0x0A02, DMI type 10, 6 bytes
On Board Device Information
        Type: Ethernet
        Status: Enabled
        Description: Intel Pro 1000 MT Network Connection

Handle 0x0A03, DMI type 10, 6 bytes
On Board Device Information
        Type: Sound
        Status: Enabled
        Description: AC'97 Audio Controller

root@mince:~ $ dmidecode -t processor
# dmidecode 2.8
SMBIOS 2.3 present.

Handle 0x0400, DMI type 4, 32 bytes
Processor Information
        Socket Designation: Microprocessor
        Type: Central Processor
        Family: Pentium 4
        Manufacturer: Intel
        ID: 24 0F 00 00 FF FB EB 3F
        Signature: Type 0, Family 15, Model 2, Stepping 4
        Flags:
                FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
                VME (Virtual mode extension)
                DE (Debugging extension)
                PSE (Page size extension)
                TSC (Time stamp counter)
                MSR (Model specific registers)
                PAE (Physical address extension)
                MCE (Machine check exception)
                CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
                APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
                SEP (Fast system call)
                MTRR (Memory type range registers)
                PGE (Page global enable)
                MCA (Machine check architecture)
                CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
                PAT (Page attribute table)
                PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
                CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
                DS (Debug store)
                ACPI (ACPI supported)
                MMX (MMX technology supported)
                FXSR (Fast floating-point save and restore)
                SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
                SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
                SS (Self-snoop)
                HTT (Hyper-threading technology)
                TM (Thermal monitor supported)
        Version: Not Specified
        Voltage: 1.5 V
        External Clock: 400 MHz
        Max Speed: 3060 MHz
        Current Speed: 1800 MHz
        Status: Populated, Enabled
        Upgrade: ZIF Socket
        L1 Cache Handle: 0x0700
        L2 Cache Handle: 0x0701
        L3 Cache Handle: Not Provided


Hope that is of some use
[/code]

[wonko]

Do you have the ability to test if this setup is able to play 720p/1080p video without any issues? I've got a couple of GX260s I can get my hands on cheaply and I think they would work well for my purposes.

Thanks!

-brian

[zzpanic]

Hi,

Sorry for the slow reply

This machine (1.8GHz P4) can not play any of the broadcast HD dvb-t channels in Australia. It plays for a few seconds and then pauses, then repeats. I'm using xv in my playback profile.

Regards,
Patrick.