A Surprisingly RARE Dell Optiplex

Summary

The 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

00:00

😀 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.

05:02

🚧 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.

10:02

⚡ 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.

15:03

💻 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.

Keywords

💡Dell Optiplex

Dell Optiplex refers to a line of business-oriented desktop computers from Dell. They are common in office environments. The video focuses on a specific model - the Dell Optiplex 5055 - which features an unusual AMD Ryzen Pro processor not typically found in Optiplex systems.

💡Ryzen

Ryzen is the brand name for AMD's line of CPUs starting with the Zen microarchitecture. Ryzen CPUs compete with Intel's Core CPUs. The Dell Optiplex 5055 featured in the video uses a rare Ryzen Pro 1300 CPU, which is unusual to find in a prebuilt system.

💡CPU

CPU stands for central processing unit. It is the main processor chip in a computer responsible for carrying out instructions. The video examines the performance of the Ryzen Pro 1300 CPU in the Dell Optiplex 5055 for various desktop and server workloads.

💡Benchmark

Benchmarks refer to standardized tests used to measure and compare the performance of computer hardware or software. The video runs benchmarks like Cinebench and PCMark on the Optiplex 5055 to evaluate the Ryzen Pro 1300 CPU.

💡GPU

GPU stands for graphics processing unit. It is a specialized processor optimized for rendering graphics. The lack of integrated graphics in the Ryzen Pro 1300 CPU requires a dedicated GPU. The video tests a few GPUs in the Optiplex 5055.

💡Gaming

Gaming refers to playing video games on a computer. The video tests the gaming performance of the Optiplex 5055 with various GPUs on games like Rocket League and Call of Duty.

💡Emulation

Emulation in computing refers to imitating the behavior of one system on a different system. The video uses PCSX2, a PlayStation 2 emulator, to evaluate the Optiplex 5055's CPU performance.

💡Home Server

A home server is a computer used as a server in a home environment, often for storage, backups, media streaming etc. The video examines using the Optiplex 5055 as a home server running server software like Proxmox and Jellyfin.

💡Power Draw

Power draw refers to how much electrical power a computer pulls from the wall outlet. The video measures and compares the power draw of the Optiplex 5055 with different configurations to Intel-based systems.

💡Transcoding

Transcoding is converting a media file from one format to another. The video tests the Optiplex 5055's ability to transcode video files when used as a Jellyfin media server.

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]

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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

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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

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