My 7 year old Dimension 4700 died and it appears to be the motherboard;at least one capacitor is bulging. From reading other posts I don't want to go through the hassle of adapting the front USB port.
Finances are an issue. From what I've read on manufacturers Dell is still probably better than say HP or Gateway. I've thought of building something as the following components are still functioning:CD drive,DVD recorder,the SATA drive,have a ATA drive from another computer used less than a month and the 4GB DDR2 RAM and a brand new 400 watt power supply.I would buy a copy of Win7 and from viewing NewEgg videos and reading Tom's Hardware I think I could build one but I am expecting it to costs around $300 about the same as an Inspiron 660s with Win8.
However I do like having the flexibility of both DVD and CD drives and would like to seperate OS and programs/data on 2 different hard drives. So I'm thinking a refurb Optiplex 755 or 745 MT might be the way to go for now and then when that dies hopefully I could either build something better or buy a something better.
I see refurbs on sites like New Egg for around $200 with win 7
BTW the 4700 has been fine for my needs.
Feedback on these Optiplex models is appreciated along with any other advice.
thanks