OptiPlex XM 590 - Back to Home

Earlier this month, I picked up a very rare early 90s Dell OptiPlex that, by the looks of things, had quite the hard life. I've never seen a PC even close to as dirty before. It'll be a while before it's back to 100 percent, but it's worth the effort.

The old Dell desktop.

The biggest problem that you can't see in the photos is the faceplate, which is very poorly attached due to some broken plastic pieces. It also has some sort of black oil-like substance on it, especially around the power button. Here's a few specs:

The internals of the XM 590.

All of my photos were post-cleaning, so you won't be able to truly appreciate how dirty it was. The CPU heatsink had a "fur carpet" of solid dust formed around it. I was shocked that it not only turns on, but seems to have no malfunctioning parts at all. Even the CMOS battery still worked & had the correct day.

Windows 98 booting on the desktop.

This thing is a really cool old desktop, but unfortunately, I don't have very much to do with it. My only current plan is to install some of the more obscure old Windows versions, like Windows 2 or NT 3.1. The work to restore it is far from over, so I may be revisiting this PC soon.

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