Upgrading a Dell Dimension

Joanamo

Hi all,

I have a Dell Dimension 4700 I want to upgrade. I don't use it for games, other than Civ 4 and the like, for which it works. I just want something a bit faster for the next few years. It's a P4 3 Ghz; motherboard: ( I got info from SIW software), socket 775 LGA,
North Bridge Intel i915P/i915G Revision B1
South Bridge Intel 82801FB (ICH6) Revision B1.

What's a good, not top end processor upgrade, preferably one that does not require a new motherboard? Is it easy enough to install?
Also what would be the higher end on graphic cards for this system? I have a Radeon X550, 256 mb.

Thanks in advance.

J

Cassiel

You are limited to another Intel Pentium 4 as an upgrade to your Pentium 4. It looks like the Pentium D (dual core) is not supported by your board as are all the recent Intel chips. I'd say the chip you have is as good as it gets. You're Dell uses a motherboard design called BTX which means you have very limited options to upgrade to another motherboard and modern CPU. It may be cheaper and easier to build from scratch or buy another Dell.

If your power supply has a connector for a graphics card you will have a reasonable choice, if it does not, then currently the best cards available would be the ATI 3650 and the nvidia 8600gt. Find out what memory you have is it DDR1 or DDR2, and how much of it you have, if you have 256mb or 512mb then the single best upgrade would be 2 x 1GB sticks of DDR2 ram, typically 'DDR2 5300', cost about ~€50 new, see www.adverts.ie for bargains.

Joanamo

Thanks Cassie. I guess no new processor then. I have 1.5 gb of ram, ( 2x256 and 2x512) I'll probably just replace the 256 ram for 1 gb each (limit for wxp including graphic card memory is 4 gig, right?) and go for the second lower consumption graphic cards you mention. Should be future proof for 2/3 years. Then I'll get €50 for the lot and buy a new 16 core pentium pc.

J

TerrorFirmer

3Ghz P4 is still plenty OK for most games aside from the very latest ones, 1.5Gb is also quite adequate, so all you really need to do is replace that ancient x550 which is a far greater bottleneck in games.

With a decent card you still won't be playing Crysis, but slightly older games like Company of Heroes, Battlefield 2, Civ 4, and so on will fly.

I would get this one, only a few euro more then the cheapest 8600GT and factory overclocked out of the box.

Joanamo

thanks! €69 plus postage= €81.50. Found a new GeForce 8600 GT 512 MB RAM for €70 total from eBay.
1.5 Gb is plenty, but 2 GB extra for €32 is just too tempting...

J

TerrorFirmer

What sort of 8600GT is it? If it's 512mb DDR2 it'll be up to 30-35% slower then the XXX 256mb DDR3...

Example: 8600GT cannot use more then 256mb effectively anyway.

DDR2 = 800mhz effective
XXX DDR3 = 1600mhz effective.

See the difference?

Joanamo

Great, thanks! So much I don't know... Did another search, found a 8600 gt ddr3 for €70, from Australia. Why do they have models with 512 ram if the cards cannot use it? marketing?

J

TerrorFirmer

Yep, pretty much! The 8600GT could probably gain a few frames from 512mb, but only with DDR3 memory - 512mb DDR2 is easily outperformed by 256mb DDR3. If you think a 512mb 8600GT is bad, there exists such a thing as a 1GB 7100GS - a card that can barely utilize 64mb of vram in games.

AlmightyCushion

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

Yep, pretty much! The 8600GT could probably gain a few frames from 512mb, but only with DDR3 memory - 512mb DDR2 is easily outperformed by 256mb DDR3. If you think a 512mb 8600GT is bad, there exists such a thing as a 1GB 7100GS - a card that can barely utilize 64mb of vram in games.

Was it you who posted a links to a 2GB 9600GT? I feel sorry for the people who buy it.

TerrorFirmer

Yeah but at least with the 9600GT, despite being ripped off and mislead, you'd still have an OK card on your hands at the end of it all - imagine buying a 1gb 7100GS for 80 euro from Maplins, convinced you were armed with a great gaming card, booting up Call of Duty 4 and scraping together 10fps at 800x600 low settings....