Optiplex 780 - should I buy it?

I read that the DELL Optiplex 780 is known to have leaky capacitor
problems. That so?

There are many available on Ebay - I thought to buy one for my son.
Mebbe a different Optiplex wud be better?

Anyone?

JW

wrote:
I read that the DELL Optiplex 780 is known to have leaky capacitor
problems. That so?

There are many available on Ebay - I thought to buy one for my son.
Mebbe a different Optiplex wud be better?

Anyone?

JW


I'm not finding that in a search. But search engines aren't
what they used to be - it can take as long as 24 hours
of random search terms to dig up anything interesting.

The motherboard still has electrolytics, and I don't see
polymer caps on it. The picture was too low res
to really say more. The motherboard appears to be
BTX form factor.

And the motherboard isn't the only place that can
strike. It can happen to power supplies as well. Which,
if you buy the tower form factor, and not SFF or USFF,
makes it easier to repair. Dell now uses standard ATX
pinout on PSUs, and has stopped with the proprietary wiring
pattern.

The trick would be, in this case, to buy such products
*early* before Christmas, so they can be thoroughly
inspected by you.

I wouldn't mind buying one for my own usage, but giving
them as gifts would mean doing a careful inspection first.

I'd have to pull the PSU, take the cover off, and check.

The machines are old enough at this point, that if they
were "ripe", there would already be a "harvest".

For example, I had an Antec power supply with bad caps,
it was only used for a couple hours before being placed
back in the box. Then two years later I pull it out of
the box again, and it's toast. Four caps with orange
leakage on the tops. It doesn't even have to be under
stress to leak. They can corrode through the cap housing
while in storage.

Paul

On Sun, 27 Nov 2016 15:07:06 -0500, Paul
wrote:

wrote:
I read that the DELL Optiplex 780 is known to have leaky capacitor
problems. That so?

There are many available on Ebay - I thought to buy one for my son.
Mebbe a different Optiplex wud be better?

Anyone?

JW


I'm not finding that in a search. But search engines aren't
what they used to be - it can take as long as 24 hours
of random search terms to dig up anything interesting.

The motherboard still has electrolytics, and I don't see
polymer caps on it. The picture was too low res
to really say more. The motherboard appears to be
BTX form factor.

And the motherboard isn't the only place that can
strike. It can happen to power supplies as well. Which,
if you buy the tower form factor, and not SFF or USFF,
makes it easier to repair. Dell now uses standard ATX
pinout on PSUs, and has stopped with the proprietary wiring
pattern.

The trick would be, in this case, to buy such products
*early* before Christmas, so they can be thoroughly
inspected by you.

I wouldn't mind buying one for my own usage, but giving
them as gifts would mean doing a careful inspection first.

I'd have to pull the PSU, take the cover off, and check.

The machines are old enough at this point, that if they
were "ripe", there would already be a "harvest".

For example, I had an Antec power supply with bad caps,
it was only used for a couple hours before being placed
back in the box. Then two years later I pull it out of
the box again, and it's toast. Four caps with orange
leakage on the tops. It doesn't even have to be under
stress to leak. They can corrode through the cap housing
while in storage.

Paul

Thanks Paul

I prob will not buy it. I read that others have had problems with the
caps.

JW

On 11/27/2016 10:44 AM, wrote:
I read that the DELL Optiplex 780 is known to have leaky capacitor
problems. That so?

There are many available on Ebay - I thought to buy one for my son.
Mebbe a different Optiplex wud be better?

Anyone?

JW




Here are the ones with the capacitor problems



GX-280
GX-270
Precision 470
GX-260 SDC
GX-240 tower
GX-620 USFF
SX-280
SX-270