Dell Optiplex GX620

[DWhitley]

I normally build my own computers and know almost nothing about Dell. I need a second machine in a hurry however and am considering a used Dell Optiplex GX620 without hard drive.

I do know that Dell tend to use proprietary parts and the manual refers to a replacement hard drive being "configured for your computer", whatever that means.

Does anyone know whether I need a "special" hard drive for a Dell? And if there is a limitation, is it something electronic (eg BIOS) or the drive's physical dimensions?

ALSO - can anyone recommend a good site for Dell support?

[mrt9888]

The hard drive will have to comply with SATA or IDE standards so you should be able to use any drive you want.

[lordmozilla]

we have loads of GX620's at work, (745,755,260,270,280's as well..) and 620's arent bad, BTX form factor, the ones we have are SATA, but they have an IDE connector too, they use an older chipset than the 965 not too sure, we have two batches ones with pentium D's and some with P4 prescotts, same chipset on them i think cause images work on both.

Harddrive will be a std. 3.5" one slots in under the cdrom/dvdrom drive. Full height PCI cards wont fit in the slots, that's about all thats weird about the case, and the weird form factor PSU (i think it's a normal btx one though just not ATX).

There are many different models though, here we use the second one from right to left, so not quite the biggest.

Dell OptiPlex GX620 review - IT Reviews

If you have the tiny one, (we have a few but i've never seen inside) you get a laptop cd/dvd rom drive. but i think it's still a 3.5" HDD,

[DWhitley]

Thanks for that. Got the Dell Optiplex GX620 and very pleased with it as a second machine for general internet/office work. Tough, well designed case. Although the published data seems to limit the hard drive size to 250GB, this is just a height restriction. If you leave the floppy bay empty, it will take any size. I've put a 750GB SATA in mine.

Two small issues for anyone buying the desktop version second hand:
1. The hard drive fits in a plastic caddy - this may be missing if the hard drive has been removed for security reasons.
2. The hard drive needs a "left-handed" right-angled SATA cable because there is insufficient space for a normal SATA plug.

Lastly, if you're wondering why I need a 750GB hard drive for office work - I'm using a separate partition to backup files from my 'main' PC.

[smartwombat]

These small format machines are terrifically heat sensitive.
Mine has blown two 3.5" hard disks this year.
Monitoring with DTemp I can see a rise from 55C (case lid off) to 61C (case lid on).

The hard disk mount on my GX 620 is behind the CPU, not under the DVD.

The design is odd, the PSU is exhausting hot air into the case, over the memory.
Drawing in cold air to cool the PSU is a good idea, but venting hot air inside a small case doesn't seem too clever.
I assume that the CPU fan is meant to create a flow through the case, as it has a large intake on the front of the case and vents to the rear.

This blows hot air from the CPU over the hard disk, so cooling is compromised.

I would advise against this machine, based on my experience.

[Gomezie]

Should be fine with pretty much any similar drive, as already mentioned

[scaryjim]

Should be fine with pretty much any similar drive, as already mentioned

And three and a half years ago that would have been useful advice

Pro-tip for Hexus - always read the date on earlier posts! Old threads don't get locked here, and old hands like me tend to be very sarcastic when new members with less than 20 posts drag up ancient threads with one line posts....