For some reason I bought this cheap OptiPlex from 2004. So let’s take a look at it! From my view, it’s easily one of the most undesirable computer systems ever. Boring looks, basic business hardware, bad airflow, and suffering from capacitor plague. Does it even still work? Let’s find out!
● LGR links:
https://www.patreon.com/LazyGameReviews
https://www.twitter.com/LazyGameReviews
https://www.facebook.com/LazyGameReviews
● All background music licensed from:
http://www.epidemicsound.com
00:00 The most boring unwanted PC
02:04 This is why it’s bad
06:04 Ports and things
07:16 Inside the clamshell case
09:17 Does it even power on?
12:11 Replacing battery, thermal paste
13:58 Installing Windows 98 SE
16:50 SimCity 3000 Unlimited
18:50 Unreal Tournament GOTY
20:50 GTA Vice City
23:34 Epic Pinball Sound Blaster test
26:02 I can’t hate it? Yes it’s bad, but…
#LGR #Retro #computer
source
okay but I unironically love the look of the Dimensions of the same era with the full grey front and the hinge open thing
I always loved the toolless hinged cases for the Dimensions and Optiplexes. Although the cover panel being a different color from the rest of the face always bugged me about this series specifically.
My first job out of college was working for a school district in the mid-to-late 2000s. The compact version you show briefly, with almost these exact same specs, was my work computer for nearly my entire time there.
What made it even more amusing was that our accounting system was run on an ancient HP 3000 server at the County Office of Ed (so old that, even 20 years ago, they had to resort to eBay to get spare parts for it because HP had sunset support). I had to run a terminal emulator to connect to it every time I needed to run a budget report or move money around.
I had one of these. It lasted barely 2 years before it crapped the bed. Sold as "refurbished", got bricked anyway. Burned! Worked great until then, though.
Those VC cops don't mess around. "This is just like training!"
I didnt know windows 98 supported pentium 4s.
"Mediocre"! How dare you! That was one of my favorite work computers. Fast, Reliable. Never had a problem with em, which is important for being in IT. Now Dell Dimension. Yea, horrible.
1:09 у меня OptiPlex 170L, покупал за ≈$10 (март 2022).
The PC that got me into retro computing and having my own channel. This and LGR, of course.
Also, after this video, these are going to triple in price 😅
–LGR buys a computer for $60 (with shipping), that he expects will run like crap, or not run at all.
–LGR says the computer is boring as can be, and is not worth much of anything, aesthetically, or otherwise.
–Computer has leaky caps, that obviously need replacement, LGR rightly suspects it will be nothing but trouble
–LGR powers on computer, expecting it to not work at all.
–Computer works like a beast, running Unreal Tournament GOTY with aplomb
–LGR expects no Sound Blaster emulation, or support with DOS games
–LGR runs DOS games, and Sound Blaster emulation is there, but choppy
–Despite some frame drops in a game designed for a computer five years older than this computer, everything runs great, leaky caps and all
–LGR tries so hard to find anything to complain about at the end of the video, settles on his own aesthetic preferences as the primary issue
–LGR commits to repairing the computer, having ordered replacement caps
–LGR, overall, taken aback at how much of a hidden gem he found with this unseeming, "boring" computer.
This is why Dell was so well-loved back then. Despite all of the issues some of their machines had, they made some darn fine computers, and that's what the company was all about, back then!
Dude, you got a Dell~
Every single computer in my local library in 2006.
@LGR I am not surprised that it still functions. I had a Pentium 3 hit by capacitor plague, much bulgier and gross and oozier than those caps, it worked until the day I had to give it away. Those boards often end up with some corrosion and junk, but you'll be surprised how many of them still work.
I had a Dell Dimension which looked like this, got to love old tech!
We used those at school in 2014/15. Took 15 minutes to start working after boot and not be frozen
I have one of theese in my attic and also a whole bunch of dell dimensions
Thanks for the video! I've used machines like this in the office, and I never found them exciting. However, I was amused by your description of it being boring, ugly, and causing your eyes to glaze over. I grew up in the 80's and 90's, so just a few years older than you, and the two decades solid of ALL MS-DOS / Windows PC's being angular, beige boxes has made THAT the definition of "boring, ugly, and cause my eyes to glaze over." 🙂 I still have my AT clone and Gateway 2000 PC (which is beige but has a little swoop of a design on the front) from 1989 and 1994, and I'm only just now warming up to them looking "kinda nice" rather than "boring, ugly-ass beige boxes." When Dell started making their bog-standard computers black with silver highlights, while I never owned one of them, I was very pleased to see that SOMEONE was finally doing something different with their computer cases, to provide our eyes with some relief from the sea of boring, ugly, beige boxes.
As with all things aesthetic, it's all in the eye of the beholder! 🙂
I remember these things, we used to have them in school. By then, they were probably already outdated.
That’s the machine that got me into building computers! My grandpa died in 2002 and was a huge computer enthusiast and in 03 we got one of those dells from Aaron’s (it’s a rent-a-center type place) and they sucked…the pc was used when it was supposed to be new and somehow after 2 months past the date we paid it off it died and since we didn’t have money growing up my mom was going to just throw it away but I took it and for months couldn’t do anything with it but eventually tried a Linux live cd and eventually learned how to reinstall Windows, upgraded it from 128 megabytes to 1 gig and I think I upgraded to a 80gig hard drive and threw some kinda PCi video card so I could play some games on it. Man I wish I still had that thing lol
The capacitors on that Epic Pinball Android table looked just fine. 😉
(24:45 – Two visable light blue top right)
When you said "oooh Pentium 4" it took me right back to being 6 or 7 and my computer programmer neighbour boasting about how kick ass Pentium 4 was lol
French public administration had plenty of those back then. Did my PhD on one of those, never failed me.
Had a dell dimension 2400 with windows xp preloaded
We have one of those, we got it from a family friend who was upgrading the tech at their business and needed to get rid of it so they gave the computer to us, it worked until around 2013 when it had stopped showing anything on the monitor
This brings back so many nightmares!! Thanks for reminding me! 🤣🤣
I had this PC as a kid, and yep it sure was cheap and lame lol. But it was my gateway to the Internet in the early 2000s, and that was all I needed it for. Also was able to at least play simple 2D games on it, so I got to dabble in some light PC gaming before building my first actual rig in 2014.
OMG Clint I had one of these in Australia in 2003. I used to play Enclave and chat with my friends on icq. Wow, old days!!!
I loved the their look though!
I have worked on fleets of those in the business world. I would be replacing the boards once or twice a week due to caps. It was so common I would call Dell say bad caps and get a replacement overnighted without any other questions other than verifying my info.
Even being made in the middle of the capacitor plague, these things are likely to outlast the heat death of the universe.
I have an old dell dimension 8200 that looks just like that optiplex , it’s been in my family forever. I upgraded the cpu, ram and graphics card, and the hard drive and it is a beast of a computer. I dualboot xp and 98se on it and it runs games flawlessly.