My computer died a few months ago and a friend gave me an old dell optiplex gx270, the big version, only problem is it does not have a hard drive and while I have the windows xp pro key I do not have a cd. What kind of hard drive can I buy, I would appreciate links if allowed, and what other upgrades can the system handle. I am just going to use this for work and some movie viewing. Link to computer: http://www.dell.com/downloads/us/products/optix/gx270_spec.pdf
yes. You you going to put XP pro on it? I picked up a dell optiplex 755 duo core work station with 4 gigs of ram from a hospital upgrading, dropped a sata 2TB hard drive in it and its a bad ass media server for the house. $175 total for a good system.
yes i've got the cd key for windows xp pro but i don't have the actual disk or even the recovery disk. what other upgrades can I make? I was thinking of putting in some more ram: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009PD43G/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A2NDNAPHQ3UDKH as much as possible. could I get a graphics card? would i have to upgrade the power supply? I've never really built or done any serious maintenance on a computer before but I am eager to learn.
That ram will be great. You can add a graphics card for a TV tuner/DVR , easy stuff., sound card too, real easy. I would not sink too much into a P4 computer though. No need for more power supply. Now you will need a disk.