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The Dell OptiPlex 745 offers energy-efficient, easy to use performance, and a sleek profile.

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Several questions from a new Optiplex 745 USFF owner.

from the factory, these are supposed to have two ddr2 ram slots, which mine has, and should only be able to support 4gb of ddr2 RAM, but the previous owner put in two (x2) 4gb DDR2 RAM sticks, which Windows 7 Pro is recognizing and utilizing all of. Is this bad?

Secondly, I recently removed, cleaned, and placed the same CPU in the LGA775 Port, but I broke the thermal paste seal, so should I replace the thermal paste, or can I keep using it?

Lastly, there is supposed to be a computer speaker, which for some reason, was not installed or was uninstalled by the previous owner, and the 4-pin connector on the motherboard is empty. This is fine, right?

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@acedrakos

Is this bad?

No, it is not. This is actually pretty common. All that means is that the computer is deemed stable by Dell with the 4gb of DDR2 RAM. Often times this is based on the BIOS firmware that was originally issues with your computer. Good for you that it read/writes and recognizes the 8GB of RAM.

should I replace the thermal paste, or can I keep using it?

Yes. I always replace the thermal paste. It is a vital part of keeping your computer from overheating and eventually failing. A few dollars spend on some good thermal paste and a few minutes of work to safe a processor from overheating, is time and money wisely spend.

This is fine, right?

Yes, it is. You do not need a speaker nor will it cause any harm.

Sounds like you got a winner there :-)

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Thank you so much! I am eventually going to buy a q6600 and BSEL it (As well as supporting cooling mods lol), so I might just keep it off of power until then, when I can replace the thermal paste.

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@acedrakos you did say yours is a USFF correct? There are no expansion slots on the motherboard for any other graphics card. You could always try an external USB graphics card.

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@oldtorkey03 , true, but my USB ports are 2.0s, I believe, which on a good day has a 480 mb/s write speed. I could try, but it wouldn't be a huge increase.

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* @old turkey my bad.

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@acedrakos I figured they were. That makes it pretty much impossible to upgrade your existing graphics card. Still a decent computer to have even if it is not a great gaming rig.

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I had the GX P4HT version, so I'm kind of familiar with this chassis - this was before 1L mini-PCs became viable as these needed additional cooling modern 1L PCs account for, especially with "T" (Intel 35W) and the "E" (AMD 35W) chips allow. These did not do well with the P4HT (Pentium Ds were worse, 2 Preshott P4s on one chip!!!) chips and cooked the motherboards all the time - the Core 2 45nm chips largely negated that, but the early 65nm Core 2 models run significantly cooler, which these support. The Pentium 4/D machines before the Core 2 chips were validated throw an error, but these should be immune to that issue as they have the microcode. As long as the BIOS is current, these can accommodate the Core 2 Duo. You absolutely need to repaste these, even with a C2D - these were hot new, and now they are old and the paste is aged.

The first thing I'd do is put an E6700 in that thing ASAP, especially if it has a P4/D chip. These will not take a Q6600 or other Core 2 Quad - Core 2 Duo only! The towers gained them later on but you will cook this with a Q6600 or any of them for that matter.

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Bold of you to assume that I have a good CPU from the previous owner. *cackles in celeron d 346sl9br*

*cry's because crappy processor*

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@acedrakos those don’t cook to death at least. They ran kind of cool.

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@Nick not mine. the fans are always on. even when I am in bios.

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@nick I have one more question, my win7 pro bios is from 2009, but I want to install linux mint as a dual boot setup. Should I update the bios and how would i go about that?

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@nick I am also getting an e6700, like you recommended. It will be in by Christmas and I can update you on the Optiplex situation then.

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Ace Drakos crwdns2934231:0crwdne2934231:0
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