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expiredBigFatCat posted Mar 16, 2023 07:58 PM
expiredBigFatCat posted Mar 16, 2023 07:58 PM

Dell OptiPlex 5050 SFF Desktop (Refurb, B Grade): i5-6500, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD

& More + Free S&H

$90

$179

49% off
Dell Refurbished
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Deal Details
Dell Refurbished has Dell OptiPlex 5050 SFF Desktop (Refurbished, B Grade) for $179 - 50% w/ promo code 5050DELL4U = $89.50. Shipping is free.

Also available, Dell Refurbished has Dell OptiPlex 5050 SFF Desktop (Refurbished, A Grade) for $199 - 50% w/ promo code 5050DELL4U = $99.50. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member BigFatCat for finding this deal.

Specs
  • Intel Core i5-6500 Processor (4-Core, 3.20 GHz)
  • 8GB (2x4GB) RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • Integrated Graphics
  • Windows 10 Professional

Editor's Notes

Written by johnny_miller | Staff
  • About this deal:

Original Post

Written by BigFatCat
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Dell Refurbished has Dell OptiPlex 5050 SFF Desktop (Refurbished, B Grade) for $179 - 50% w/ promo code 5050DELL4U = $89.50. Shipping is free.

Also available, Dell Refurbished has Dell OptiPlex 5050 SFF Desktop (Refurbished, A Grade) for $199 - 50% w/ promo code 5050DELL4U = $99.50. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member BigFatCat for finding this deal.

Specs
  • Intel Core i5-6500 Processor (4-Core, 3.20 GHz)
  • 8GB (2x4GB) RAM
  • 500GB Hard Drive
  • Integrated Graphics
  • Windows 10 Professional

Editor's Notes

Written by johnny_miller | Staff
  • About this deal:

Original Post

Written by BigFatCat

Community Voting

Deal Score
+39
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Top Comments

HY-SD
5470 Posts
722 Reputation
it would use less power. also there were improvement in other areas like memory bandwidth etc.

however, yes intel was very lazy during that time, and ryzen just leapfrogged them.
hjliii
42 Posts
28 Reputation
A word of warning to those considering this deal. I tested two of these and both suffered from the same problem. The Gmail web client was unusable. I have no explanation for why this is the case, but it was bad enough that I had to return both machines. I tried everything to make it workable (i.e. multiple browsers (Firefox, Chrome, Edge), html version of Gmail, etc.). Nothing worked. I even reinstalled the OS from scratch. Using the exact same internet connection, performance was at least an order of magnitude faster on machines running intel CPU's that were two generations older. Benchmarks indicated the machines were running as expected. I would love to know if anyone has an explanation for this bottleneck. With the exception of the Gmail issue, I didn't see any other problems. I didn't see performance issue with any other workflows. Other content heavy web sites loaded quickly without issues. I really wanted to keep these machines as they are a great value, but could not work around the Gmail web client issue.
LordDrol
1510 Posts
210 Reputation
It was during a period of historic stagnation with Intel releasing smaller and smaller quad-cores with minor changes, and reserving 6-10 cores for its "Extreme" desktop lineup. One problem was the delay of 10nm by years due to technical issues, effectively ending Intel's "Tick-Tock" model [wikipedia.org].

But AMD is partly to blame for its awful Bulldozer microarchitecture that made it nearly irrelevant in desktops until Zen/Ryzen came out. Core counts were effectively fake, leading to a class-action lawsuit, clock speeds and power use were pushed high to little effect, and they didn't bother releasing high-end FX CPUs based on Steamroller and Excavator.

Without effective competition, greed takes over.

112 Comments

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Mar 17, 2023 01:40 AM
42 Posts
Joined Jun 2011
hjliiiMar 17, 2023 01:40 AM
42 Posts
Quote from LordDrol :
I have a 6600T which is virtually identical to the i5-6500. 7050 MFF that I got last week. Gmail works fine, much faster than the RasPi 4 I was using before.

I did have a problem where Chex Quest gave a black screen and forced me to restart the computer, but I solved that either by updating Windows or running it in windowed mode. Other than that I've mostly stuck to using Google Chrome.
I would really like to hear back from someone who purchases one of these to see if the Gmail web client problem was somehow isolated to my setup. If not for the fact that I saw it on two separate machines I would not have noted it. I saw the problem using two separate google accounts. I honestly don't believe it was a connection issue, as I tested using an older machine using literally the same internet cable and connection to my router. Not only was the client slow, it often would error out and fail to load messages. Web searches revealed nothing of use to explain the issue. I don't want to discourage anyone from purchasing these machines, but I suggest testing Gmail once you have done all of your updates to confirm you don't have an issue.
Mar 17, 2023 01:57 AM
164 Posts
Joined Apr 2012
BadOceanMar 17, 2023 01:57 AM
164 Posts
Anybody with one of these, what's the idle power usage? Thinking about something like this for a pfSense router.
Mar 17, 2023 02:45 AM
2,601 Posts
Joined Jun 2005
Samuel1613Mar 17, 2023 02:45 AM
2,601 Posts
Quote from hjliii :
I would really like to hear back from someone who purchases one of these to see if the Gmail web client problem was somehow isolated to my setup. If not for the fact that I saw it on two separate machines I would not have noted it. I saw the problem using two separate google accounts. I honestly don't believe it was a connection issue, as I tested using an older machine using literally the same internet cable and connection to my router. Not only was the client slow, it often would error out and fail to load messages. Web searches revealed nothing of use to explain the issue. I don't want to discourage anyone from purchasing these machines, but I suggest testing Gmail once you have done all of your updates to confirm you don't have an issue.
But you're not talking about web access to gmail (via browser), you're talking about the gmail desktop application right?
Mar 17, 2023 02:48 AM
8,102 Posts
Joined Nov 2008
dtmamgMar 17, 2023 02:48 AM
8,102 Posts
Any tech guru can comment if this is a SD for daily use? Just light duty.

it seems there were/are several Dell PC deals lately
Mar 17, 2023 02:54 AM
215 Posts
Joined Jun 2013
Tiptop2600Mar 17, 2023 02:54 AM
215 Posts
Anyone know the idle power draw on this? Thinking about using this for a truenas server
Mar 17, 2023 02:59 AM
5 Posts
Joined Jan 2020
ThriftyTent3057Mar 17, 2023 02:59 AM
5 Posts
Quote from BadOcean :
Anybody with one of these, what's the idle power usage? Thinking about something like this for a pfSense router.
I realize this isn't the same model, but I bought a 7050 a few months ago. I'm running OPNsense on it. Power usage fluctuates between 15-20 Watts.
Mar 17, 2023 02:59 AM
5,470 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
HY-SDMar 17, 2023 02:59 AM
5,470 Posts
Quote from dtmamg :
Any tech guru can comment if this is a SD for daily use? Just light duty.

it seems there were/are several Dell PC deals lately
more than adequate.

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Mar 17, 2023 03:03 AM
1,655 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
hsingh10Mar 17, 2023 03:03 AM
1,655 Posts
Is this good for retropie? I have a $50 Dell gift card that expires at the end of the month
Mar 17, 2023 03:04 AM
310 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
ptsderMar 17, 2023 03:04 AM
310 Posts
Quote from hjliii :
Using the exact same internet connection, performance was at least an order of magnitude faster on machines running intel CPU's that were two generations older. ... With the exception of the Gmail issue, I didn't see any other problems. I didn't see performance issue with any other workflows. Other content heavy web sites loaded quickly without issues.
I have this OptiPlex 5050 SFF and have not noticed any problem with Gmail performance.

In addition to "same internet connection", are all other variables the same on the OptiPlex 5050 and your other machines (with older Intel CPUs but order of magnitude faster when using Gmail web)?

Would be surprised if what has been observed with Gmail performance is due to defective hardware.

Some variables to consider when comparing:
  1. OS version
  2. Browser version
  3. # of browser+windows open
  4. Visited sites on open browser+windows
  5. Browser cache state
  6. Extensions/Add-ons active, including blockers
  7. Firewall configuration
  8. Other running processes
  9. Amount of RAM
  10. HDD
  11. Time of day the tests are performed
Original Poster
Pro
Mar 17, 2023 03:04 AM
1,841 Posts
Joined May 2008
BigFatCatMar 17, 2023 03:04 AM
Original Poster
Pro
1,841 Posts
Quote from dtmamg :
Any tech guru can comment if this is a SD for daily use? Just light duty.

it seems there were/are several Dell PC deals lately
Easily a good web browser, MS office, Zoom call machine... I use a machine with 1/2 the power daily for work.
Mar 17, 2023 03:09 AM
394 Posts
Joined Aug 2010
tlogankMar 17, 2023 03:09 AM
394 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank tlogank

Quote from dtmamg :
Any tech guru can comment if this is a SD for daily use? Just light duty.

it seems there were/are several Dell PC deals lately
Spend $30 on a 500GB SSD and it will make a night and day difference in overall speed in this thing.
2
Mar 17, 2023 03:10 AM
310 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
ptsderMar 17, 2023 03:10 AM
310 Posts
Quote from hjliii :
Not only was the client slow, it often would error out and fail to load messages
If the "client" is the Gmail client in web browser, the Network tab of Chrome+Firefox+Edge DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+I) may provide clues.
Mar 17, 2023 03:15 AM
1,361 Posts
Joined Aug 2005
JFalcMar 17, 2023 03:15 AM
1,361 Posts
I bought three. Thanks OP. These are great zoomcart computers
Mar 17, 2023 03:25 AM
485 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
Roland00Mar 17, 2023 03:25 AM
485 Posts
Quote from helpout :
Why does an Intel chip only show a 3% improvement after 3 years ?
Because we are talking only 1 die shrink and 2 generation improvement running at the same ghz frequency.

The laptops between 3rd and 6th generation got massive improvements but the desktops stalled. This is because those changes I mentioned above allowed Intel to lower the voltage of the chips which allowed them to put a desktop performance chip in a laptop chassis due to the lower voltage and thus lower power consumption (make the voltage be 60% and the power consumption is 36% aka almost 1/3rd the power consumption.) But those changes Intel did not benefit Desktops at all for they want to run the chip at higher voltages to get maximum ghz even if that makes the power consumption go up in a quadratic fashion.
Last edited by Roland00 March 16, 2023 at 08:30 PM.
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Mar 17, 2023 03:27 AM
2,100 Posts
Joined Aug 2007
dealpapaMar 17, 2023 03:27 AM
2,100 Posts
I am considering to buy this to use my i7 7700 cpu

wow

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Add Dell OptiPlex 5050 System BIOS to the download list
Dell OptiPlex 5050 System BIOS
CRITICAL BIOS 14 Feb 2023
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