The Dell Optiplex 745 is business PC ,i bought the refurbished mini Tower casing with 1.86Ghz core 2 duo processor, 1GB Ram, 250GB sata Hard drive, DVD+CDRW Combo Drive.Though it has many scratches on its body due to reason it has been shipped in container with other machines, so basically lot of mix cultured hands have handled it very badly.....
The looks are not very bad it is simple as far as pc casings for businesses and organizations are concerned ,It is lot heavy though.But i suppose its less heavy then its predecessors the dell optiplex GX.
I've noticed major change in processor's speed since my last Intel Pentium 4 1MB Cache processor,Since the core 2 duo has totally different 64bit architecture plus the 2 mb Cache.Though it is 4 year old machine which is obsolete along with core 2 duo series processors.I still feel Windows XP running like windows 98 .because it has dramatically changed my focus from windows xp towards Windows 7.It is vista supported but you can get Latest drivers from Intel Website.
The Integrated stuff is very cool it has PCI express slot where you can add the latest 16x graphics card to play Latest real games or to do professional media work.Although it has built-in Integrated Intel GMA X3000 with 256 MB of Graphics memory so it can handle lot of games of its era Plus you can watch High Definition Movies on streaming net or on DVD.The Sound Chip is SoundMAX High Definition Audio Device with auto sensing feature.It has Integrated Gigabyte LAN Device you can connect your High Speed Internet or connect to Local Area Network.The Combo drive is from SONY the great thing about it is very noiseless both when playing DVD movies or Writing CD.
The Machine itself is very noiseless with 305watt power supply.With the Machine Altogether with 19"LCD you can save lots of money but reducing power electricity usage of your home or company.The Processor itself consumes less energy as said on Dell's Website.The heat sink is very big as compared to Old Pentium 4 era heat sinks.So as far as using in my country Pakistan where you do not have adequate power to use it has a very stable power supply and also the environment sometimes gets very harsh for e.g the weather temperature in Karachi gets above 40 degree Celsius in summer.So it can handle it hence it is a very suitable and stable system for running in any environment.
For Gamers ,Programmers , business and Homer User the best cost efficient refurbished PC in terms if you can sacrifice for future support and play with your luck for having no warranty.
(Optiplex 745) Dell Website:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/dfb/desktops/optix_745/pd.aspx?refid=optix_745&cs=28&s=dfb