Dell Optiplex GX620 SFF - a heat dispersement fix

The op gx620 system has a lot of issues with heat dispersement. Although it's an old system (originally released in 2005, I believe) it's still quite useful for labs or as a terminal client.

We had almost fifty of these units in our office and my colleagues and I determined a method to remove the massive heat load from the system by clearing an air path from the CPU heatsink to the exhaust vents at the back.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• casemod
• floppy
• hard
• drive
• capacitors
• motherboard

[njcompsvc]

Nice video, two questions; have you deployed any modded machines to be used in the vertical position and if so were there any issues? Also is it possible to use the floppy shell and prevent the customer from trying to insert a floppy while still maintaining aesthetics? I liked the other comment made regarding turning the fan around, has anyone done any thermal comparisons?

[heiseheise]

@njcompsvc Most of ours are in the horizontal position, some are vertical. No problems reported, yet! As for the floppy shell - it actually works like how you're asking, I think. I leave the front of the floppy drive tray in place (the part with the actual recognizable floppy port/eject button) but the drive butts right up against the door and prevents the door from being opened. Anyone trying to poke a floppy in there will just simply be unable to. From the outside, the system looks the same.

[Scorpwanna]

I like the idea of the fix, however I just don't like that the drive isn't screwed in a bracket. I thought about an idea if I could find some metal that would be easy to work with, shaping it to fit the floppy holder itself (not the drive) and then manipulating some of it to actually screw in a 2.5" hard drive. Then perhaps finding a floppy filler panel.

[heiseheise]

@Scorpwanna I had the same fear; but it's held in quite tightly by the optical drive above it. The fix has been in place for almost 9 months now and we haven't had any issues. With an SSD it would fully alleviate any vibration issues.

[flipicaneze]

I have purchased 5 SFF GX620 Optiplex computers. I don't even have a floppy in there, just the cover. Wonder how a 3.5 to 2.5 drive adapter would work instead of all this work?

[TheCatMilton]

@heiseheise Mine has a small internal speaker and it sounds like crap...You could probably attach a speaker to that clip if you figured out the polarity. In my gx620 I turned the front fan around so it blows out the front and i use speedfan to keep the fan at 65%. Everything at full power is around 47-52C so that worked for me (I have a huge ass Nvidia in there that gets a little warm though)

[DALE97DSM]

@heiseheise Thankyou for the reply, appreciate it. I do plan on buying a GX620 and doing this mod in your video, this newer computer would work great for my needs. I dont play pc games, was just asking about it. Was reading up on the specs other night, the gx620 would be great for a recording guitar or music.

[heiseheise]

@TheCatMilton yes, you're correct. I hadn't read the text on that; it says "SER2" underneath it. There is also a white port that says INT_SPKR which is self explanatory if you need to add a new piezo-electric buzzer (I don't believe it will work with an actual "speaker").

[heiseheise]

@DALE97DSM As I'm the one who came up with this mod, I can tell you that it works well with these systems. We've had no burnouts since modding the systems 7 months ago (a first for our GX620s, which normally fried either a PSU or a mobo every 3-4 months).

Good for games like Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 3 (which hasn't even been released yet)? No, you're better off buying a new(er) system. A GX620 never was built for gaming, and especially not new major studio games like that.

[DALE97DSM]

Has anyobody tried this mod? Its 2012 video is few months old and planning to buy one of these. Are these good for gaming like Diablo3 or MW3.