More on the Dell Optiplex SX260 and SX270
Getting at the insides of a Dell Optiplex SX260 or SX270 (the two differ only in the type of video output they offer) is a snap-once you know how. There's a little green latch lever on the back panel (lower left corner of the photo above) that works two ways: Push it to the left, and it opens the internal disk drive hatch on the bottom of the machine. Push it to the right, and you can slide the top side panel forward and off. With the panel off, you have easy access to just about everything in the machine. The two memory slots are at the very front, at the top in the photo. They will take either one or two (identical) DDR SDRAM sticks, rated at either 333 or 400 MHz. The largest stick the box will take is 1 GB, giving you a max of 2 GB RAM.
If you want a higher-res copy of the photo shown above, it's here.
The green plastic thing is a duct that guides air through the vanes of the CPU heat sink beneath it. Two little thumb catches release the entire fan/duct assembly, and then by disconnecting two four-pin connectors, you can remove or replace the whole thing. (I saw a retailer selling the fan assembly on eBay for $10. I may buy a spare just to have it on the shelf.) I think the fan assembly differs slightly depending on which CPU a given unit contains, with the slower Celeron units having a 3-wire fan circuit, and the faster P4 units having a 4-wire fan circuit. The extra wire may allow speed control on the fans, which I know my two P4 units have. (I'm still researching this.)
The BIOS button cell is mounted vertically and very easy to reach and change if needed. (You can see it through a notch in the front-right corner of the green duct in the photo above.) There's a very small speaker mounted up against the machine front panel (it's the black plastic item right behind the memory sticks in the photo) and it has amazing volume for something so tiny, if not a great deal of bass. The speaker slides right out after you release a thumb-catch. Spares are available online.
I haven't completely disassembled either machine yet, but it looks like five easily accessible screws release the motherboard.
The other hatch on the bottom plate of the unit is much smaller, and gives access only to the internal hard drive, which is in the 2.5" 9.5mm format. The drive is attached to a metal bracket on the hatch cover with four small screws. A flexible ribbon cable runs from the motherboard to the drive.
Overall, an impressive little machine for $250. (A friend of mine just nailed one on eBay for about $150.) They're abundant on eBay, and as they were designed to be fleet machines, I can only assume that untold numbers are now coming off lease and are being dumped on the market. (The higher-end units sold for $2000 a pop when they were new in 2002 and 2003.)
This one will almost certainly become our media PC, though nothing's going to happen until after Christmas. More later.