A Surprisingly RARE Dell Optiplex
Summary
TLDRThe transcript describes a video where the narrator tests out an unusual Dell Optiplex PC from 2008 featuring a rare AMD Ryzen Pro 1300 CPU. He cleans and upgrades the system, benchmarking performance against an HP system with an Intel i5-6400. The Ryzen has better performance but higher power draw. He tests some games and emulators, finding the GPU to be the limiting factor. As a home server, idle power draw remained high. Transcoding performance was poor. Overall the rare Ryzen CPU makes this an interesting curio but Intel versions may be more practical purchases.
Takeaways
- 😊 The video features a Dell Optiplex 5055 SFF with an unusual AMD Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 CPU
- 👷♂️ The system was purchased for $65 and then disassembled, cleaned up, and reassembled
- 🖥️ The Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 is a 4 core, 4 thread CPU with base/boost clocks of 3.5/3.7 GHz
- ⚡ The system has decent expandability with PCIe 3.0 x16 and open RAM/storage slots
- 📈 In benchmarks, the Ryzen system outperformed a comparable Intel i5 system
- 🔋 But the Ryzen system used over 30% more power at load than the Intel system
- 🎮 The GPU (Radeon R5 430) limited gaming performance, even on older titles
- 🛠️ As a home server, power draw was still quite high (35W+) at idle
- 👎 CPU transcoding performance in Jellyfin was mediocre at best
- 🤔 The uncommon CPU means limited upgrade options, but it can be a good value
Q & A
What CPU is featured in the Dell Optiplex 5055 system?
-The Dell Optiplex 5055 features an AMD Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 CPU, which is part of AMD's first generation Ryzen Pro series for OEM systems.
Why was the author surprised to see a Ryzen CPU in this Optiplex system?
-The author was surprised because first gen Ryzen CPUs typically required a dedicated GPU, which increases cost and power draw, not ideal for lower-end office PCs like the Optiplex.
How did the Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 perform compared to a similar Intel system?
-In benchmarks, the Ryzen system outperformed an HP ProDesk 600 G3 with an Intel i5-6400 by 15-30%, but drew significantly more power at idle and load.
What graphics card came with this Optiplex 5055 system?
-This system came with an AMD Radeon R5 430 2GB graphics card.
What resolution and framerate could this system achieve in games like Rocket League and COD MW2?
-At 1080p, the system could run Rocket League at 60+ fps on lowered settings, and COD MW2 at a smooth 60 fps.
How well could the Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 handle video transcoding?
-The quad-core Ryzen chip struggled with video transcoding due to lack of an iGPU, only reaching 20-28 fps during H264/H265 4K to 1080p transcoding.
What power draw did the system have while idle and under load?
-Idle power draw was around 28-36W. At load during transcoding, power draw reached 50-55W.
What potential issues exist with using 1st gen Ryzen CPUs in home servers?
-Some users have reported stability issues or crashes with 1st gen Ryzen CPUs when used in always-on home server workloads.
What upgrade options exist for the Optiplex 5055 motherboard?
-The AM4 socket means the motherboard could technically support up to a Ryzen 5000-series CPU, but the Dell BIOS likely prevents this without modding.
What was the final verdict on value proposition for this type of OEM Ryzen system?
-Unless found at a very low price point, Intel-based Optiplexes likely offer better performance-per-watt. But AMD Ryzen Pro chips could still be a good option if extra CPU power is needed.
Outlines
😀 Unboxing and Testing a Rare Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 Optiplex
The first paragraph introduces an Optiplex PC purchased for $65 featuring an unusual Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 CPU. It provides an overview of plans to clean up, test out, and benchmark the system to evaluate its performance and potential uses.
🚧 Taking Apart and Cleaning the Optiplex 5055
The second paragraph details disassembling and cleaning the Optiplex system, including removing proprietary components like the drive bay and cooler. The motherboard and components are cleaned of dust before reassembly.
⚡ Testing Performance for Desktop Use and Gaming
The third paragraph covers testing the cleaned up Optiplex system for desktop performance. It handles basic tasks well but games exhibit some stuttering. Emulation testing shows the GPU limits performance more than the CPU.
💻 Evaluating as a Home Server and Transcoding
The fourth paragraph looks at using the Optiplex as a home server. Power draw is higher than desired but virtualization is possible. Transcoding performance is limited, with crashes being a possible long-term concern.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Dell Optiplex
💡Ryzen
💡CPU
💡Benchmark
💡GPU
💡Gaming
💡Emulation
💡Home Server
💡Power Draw
💡Transcoding
Highlights
The Dell Optiplex 5055 features a rare Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 CPU
The Ryzen Pro CPUs are designed for enterprise systems and have extra security features
The Ryzen 3 Pro 1300 performs well but draws more power than equivalent Intel CPUs
The dedicated Radeon GPU limits upgrades and causes stuttering in games
As a server, the Ryzen Pro 1300 struggles to transcode video streams
There are reports of stability issues with 1st gen Ryzen in servers
The Ryzen Pro 1300 offers good multi-threaded performance for the price
It outperforms an equivalent Intel system in benchmarks
The dedicated GPU isn't great for gaming but can handle older titles
It handles emulation well thanks to the multi-threaded CPU
Removing the GPU drops idle power consumption
Virtualization works well on the Ryzen Pro 1300
The Ryzen Pro 1300 is hard to find and likely not worth seeking out
Equivalent Intel systems may be a better value proposition
Upgrading to a Ryzen 5 or 7 could improve performance
Transcripts
I paid $65 for this PC which probably
just looks like a normal Dell Optiplex
but this system features a CPU that I
didn't even know existed in this video
we're going to get this slightly rare
and unusual PC cleaned up and then test
it out to see how well it functions as a
desktop or Home Server in 2024 let's get
[Music]
started now if you're you're like me and
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Pro or even $50 off the new E7
plus this is the Dell Optiplex 5055
small form factor and it might look a
bit familiar you've probably seen other
5000 series Optiplex like the 5040 or
5060 but the 5055 is unusual in that it
features a first gen ryzen CPU now you
might be thinking you said you didn't
know that CPU existed how could you not
know about first gen ryzen well I am
actually very familiar with the lineup
of first gen ryzen CPUs because actually
the first new pc I ever built ran the
ryzen
7700 but the CPU in this system is
actually the ryzen 3 Pro 1300 the pro
series of CPUs from AMD typically only
come in OEM systems and while I did know
about these in second gen ryzen and up I
had never realized that there were Pro
Series CPUs in the first gen lineup now
unfortunately for you and me the pro
versions of these CPUs don't really
offer any features that make sense for
average consumers they mostly just
include some security features that are
useful in large business applications
which is why they only show up in OEM
systems like this Dell Optiplex seeing
AMD CPUs in office systems like this
isn't incredibly uncommon especially in
modern times but first gen ryzen really
didn't make sense for these Optiplex
because they require a dedicated GPU
that drives up the price and the power
draw so when I came across this system I
couldn't quite help myself and I just
had to check it out the ryzen 3 Pro 1300
has four cores and four threads a base
clock of 3.5 GHz
and a Max boost clock of 3.7 GHz that
probably doesn't sound super impressive
compared to other ryzen chips and I know
a lot of you are probably already
wondering about upgrades because this
motherboard uses the am4 socket even
5,000 series AMD CPUs will fit but from
what I can tell though the bios for this
Dell Optiplex never received updates to
allow for newer CPUs that being said
there are variants of this system with
the 8 core 16 thread ryzen
7700 get subscribed
according to the seller this system has
8 GB of ddr4 a 256 GB SATA SSD and
obviously due to the lack of integrated
Graphics a GPU of some kind I booted it
up with no issues and after confirming
that all the hardware was working
properly I decided it was time to give
this system a bit of a makeover the
seller seemed to know a bit about
computers but it was pretty obvious that
he hadn't cleaned this thing out so I
started by breaking the whole system
down as annoying as these proprietary
OEM systems can be I sometimes find it
fun taking them apart with all the
little levers and buttons it's like a
fun little puzzle that can cut you the
5055 small form factor is very similar
actually to the HP prodesk small form
factor I've used a couple of times now
with this drive bay thing that sort of
lifts out to expose the motherboard the
plastic caddy here is actually designed
for two 2 and 1/2 in drives and has a
proprietary power connector that's
nearly identical to the HP Pro desk with
the drive bay removed I was happy to
also see an unpopulated m.2 mbme socket
the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth adapter was
seated in the first PCI slot and below
that was a Radeon R5
430 after removing the 240 W 80 plus
bronze power supply I removed all of the
motherboard screws but still couldn't
get the motherboard out then I
remembered that these oems often Mount
the CPU Cooler directly to the back of
the case and I'm really glad that I
didn't run this system for too long
before cleaning it up because the
thermal paste had basically turned into
a Dusty chalk likee substance even with
the cooler off I still had to remove
this front little IO piece but then I
was finally able to get the Fairly Dusty
motherboard out it's actually not that
bad of a board with four dim sockets
three SATA ports one m.2 mvme slot and
two PCI slots I hate that the larger
slot is at the bottom though as that
limits you to just single slot
gpus after blowing out the majority of
the Dust I wiped down and cleaned all of
the components before reassembling
everything
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
with it all cleaned up the oplex 5055 is
actually a pretty Sleek good-looking
system I feel like I got a good deal for
$65 but let's see how it actually
performed before installing Windows 10 I
was met with the BIOS which I imagine
this is what Linux power users must feel
like when they have to use Windows the
UI while looking pretty was just awful
to work with after a fresh install of
Windows 10 I opened up Hardware info 64
to get some more insights into this PC
the first thing I noticed was that the
Radeon R 5430 is really just a Rebrand
of the R7 340 which I believe is just a
Rebrand of another GPU but frankly I
wasn't expecting much here especially
not with just 1 gab of vram I was pretty
happy to see that the by6 pcie slot
actually supports a full pcie gen 3 by6
Connection with the smaller PCI slot
supporting gen 2x4 this means this
system actually has a decent amount of
expansion potential although you will be
limited to single slot half height cards
the system handled basic desktop work
like a champ browsing the web was super
Snappy and even 4K YouTube playback was
buttery smooth that might not sound that
impressive in 2024 but the radon GPU
actually doesn't support vp9 decoding so
all of the decoding was being done
entirely on the CPU I could have
installed the h264ify plugin like I've
done in the past to let the GPU handle
the coding but seeing as that the pro
1300 was already handling 4K vp9 just
fine I decided to move on to some simple
benchmarks I started with CCH R15 where
the optx 5055 with the ryzen 3 Pro 1300
scored a three-run average of 552 now
just having that number isn't very
helpful so for comparison I decided to
use the HP prodesk 600 G3 with an i56400
an i56500 or i57500 might have been a
better option as you see those all over
the place in these types of systems but
I only had the i56400 still these CPUs
came out around the same time and are
both true quad cores so I figured that
would make for a decent comparison in
cinebench R15 the HP system scored a 463
which is around 16% slower than the
5055 in the cinebench R23 multi-threaded
test the Optiplex 5055 was around 133%
faster than the HP system and 15% faster
in the single threaded test but speed
isn't the only measure while running
cinebench R23 the pro 1300 system Drew
66 Watts that's over 30% more power than
the I5 system while just sitting idle in
Windows the Optiplex Drew over three
times the power of the HP system idling
at 36 Watts I also ran PC Mark 10 where
the Optiplex outclassed the prodesk in
each category I imagine this was due in
large part to having a dedicated GPU
which also probably contributed
significantly to the power draw I should
mention that the Radeon GPU was having
some issues with its
fan it wasn't affecting thermals in any
significant way but it was starting to
get pretty annoying plus I was curious
if a better GPU might help with both
power and performance I don't really
have any good single slot gpus on hand
but I did try this Quadro k1200 just to
see what would happen sadly it didn't
really improve PC Mark 10 performance at
all and actually raised idle power draw
slightly with 4 GB of vram though I
figured that it would be better for
trying out some games and emulation in
rocket League I was seeing well over 100
frames per second on the lowest settings
but there were some noticeable frame
time hitches I set the frame rate cap at
60 HZ to match my monitor and bumped the
settings up to try to get a little bit
more of a real world experience but even
then I was still getting some noticeable
hitches now as I expected we're most
likely going to be GPU Limited in most
circumstances but I wasn't quite sure
why I was getting so much stuttering
with such low
utilization to give this GPU more of a
chance I moved to the much older Call of
Duty Modern Warfare 2 where I had a
really smooth 60 frames per second not
that that's saying much for a CPU that
was released almost a decade after this
game came out to try and utilize the CPU
a bit more I gave PS2 emulation to shot
with
pcsx2 in MX Unleashed I had no problem
running at 60 frames per second at a 3X
render scale but had to bump it down to
2X and Need For Speed Most Wanted still
the GPU seemed to be what was really
holding things back next I wanted to see
how this system might operate as a Home
Server I also wanted to see what the
power draw would look like if we removed
the GPU entirely to do this I dropped in
an NVM SSD and installed proxmox then I
removed the graphics card as well as the
Wi-Fi adapter and optical drive to try
and bring power draw down as low as
possible but while sitting idle in
proxmox the system was still drawing 35
Watts when running CPU frequency utils
freak utils I don't really know when
running CPU frequency tills I saw that
the CPU cores were basically never
downclocking to the available 1.55 GHz
so after some Googling I installed CIS
fs utils and set the governor of each
core to power save and after restarting
the service the system power dropped
down to 28 Watts which was sadly the
lowest idle power draw I was ever able
to get with this system that's a bit of
a bummer but the CPU does at least
support virtualization and I was able to
run a VM and pass through the Wi-Fi
adapter with no issues so you could AB
absolutely run the system as a
virtualization host and take advantage
of those two pcie slots for pass through
however doing that without integrated
Graphics is a bit of a pain in the butt
I installed jelly fin on top of Debian
12 to see how the CPU might handle
transcoding without integrated Graphics
the Ryon 3 Pro 1300 obviously isn't
capable of Hardware accelerated
transcoding but it had performed pretty
well up to this point I was hopeful that
it might be able to just use brute force
to transcoded software but that wasn't
the case when transcoding 4K 10 bit h264
down to 1080p the ryzen pro was able to
transcode at around 28 frames per second
which would be okay with most movies
however with anything at 30 or 60 frames
per second you would definitely see a
lot of buffering when transcoding 10bit
h265 down to 108p the pro 1300 could
only manage 20 frames per second leading
to an unwatchable
experience while transcoding the system
power draw jumped up to between 50 and
55 Watts now not Everyone likes to or
needs to trans code and direct streaming
worked totally fine as you would expect
there is a caveat when it comes to
running first gen ryzen CPUs in home
servers I've come across many posts
about people having issues with these
CPUs crashing while sitting at idle
which home servers typically do quite a
bit I couldn't quite find a good answer
as to whether or not this has been fixed
in a Linux kernel or a GAA update or
something like that but I never ran into
any issues when testing to be fair I've
only been working on this video for a
few days so it's possible that I've just
been lucky so to try and test for the
issue a bit more I've kept the system
running Jelly Fin and have it monitored
with uptime Kuma if I have any issues
between now and about a week from now
when this video gets published I'll make
sure to add an update here if nothing
happened all is well so what are my
thoughts on the Optiplex 5055 and the
ryzen pro 1300 well it might not really
matter all that much as these systems
aren't nearly as common as their Intel
counterparts and the ryzen 3 Pro 1300 is
even less common I mean it's not often
that I can only find a single eBay
listing for a CPU if you do come across
this system or CPU deciding whether or
not it's a good deal as always comes
down to the price I paid $65 for this
Optiplex and that would have been
totally worth it for me if I just needed
a simple desktop PC for work or school
or whatever it's probably more realistic
that you'll find a better deal though on
one of the Intel versions of these
systems those seem to be cheaper don't
need a dedicated GPU draw less power and
frankly we'll probably perform even
better had I used an i56500 or even
better an i57500 I would have most
likely had better performance than the
ryzen system while still drawing
significantly less power now if you need
a dedicated GPU then those factors maybe
aren't quite as meaningful but the
Optiplex 5055 really shoots itself in
the foot by having the bu16 slot shoved
up right next to the power supply there
really aren't that many great options
out there for single slot half high gpus
now as I touched on before there is the
potential to upgrade the ryzen 3 3 Pro
1300 to a ryzen 5 or even ryzen 7 CPU
and who knows maybe that will make this
system much more compelling if you like
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for this one though so as always thank
you guys so much for watching stay
curious and I really can't wait to see
you in the next
one
[Music]
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