Upgrading an old Dell Dimension 9200

SolvableKnave

How do folks. Have been a bit of lurker for a few weeks and this is my first post here. Hopefully you can shed some light.

I have an old Dimension 9200 which I had been using quite happily from end 2007 up to start 2011. I was hoping to keep the case and slowly upgrade over time (Motherboard, CPU, Ram, GPU). After doing some quick reading, I came across and old review which mentions that the 9200 case uses a BTX layout. Are my plans now scuppered before they've had a chance to get off the ground?

Mr McBoatface

What is the current specs of the cpu and the amount of ram? What do you plan on doing with the PC ?

SolvableKnave

jobyrne30 wrote: »

What is the current specs of the cpu and the amount of ram? What do you plan on doing with the PC ?

Core 2 Quad - 2.4GHZ - 1066MHZ FSB
4GB Ram DDR2 667Mhz.

Mostly to be used for upcoming MMO's, RTS and sim's.

zilog_jones

I doubt there's anything in there that will be usable. BTX motherboards are not commonly available, and modern case designs are a lot better than what you have there. Dell often use non-standard shape PSUs and the power rating is almost certainly too low for a modern system (caps age too, so it will not be performing as well as it did 6 years ago).

I have a self-built PC of a similar age (probably same CPU if it's a Q6600) and there's nothing useful in that either, except for any components that were replaced in the last couple of years (SSD, graphics card).

SolvableKnave

zilog_jones wrote: »

I doubt there's anything in there that will be usable. BTX motherboards are not commonly available, and modern case designs are a lot better than what you have there. Dell often use non-standard shape PSUs and the power rating is almost certainly too low for a modern system (caps age too, so it will not be performing as well as it did 6 years ago).

I have a self-built PC of a similar age (probably same CPU if it's a Q6600) and there's nothing useful in that either, except for any components that were replaced in the last couple of years (SSD, graphics card).

That's what I was thinking. I was just hoping to hang on to the case, but I think I may have to get rid of that also. When I read of the BTX layout that threw me as I hadn't heard of it before.

TerrorFirmer

The Q6600 is still an OK performer so if you add a new graphics card and possibly an SSD you'll get a new lease on life on it for a period, but overall you'd really want to be looking at just getting a new machine. It's not viable at all to upgrade that outdated platform - case, motherboard socket, ram, etc are all useless in that regard. If you could overclock you'd be in a better position but that's not possible in this case.

You can build a new machine for very little these days, for as little as 400 you could build a new system that will run rings around your current system, and you also have to consider that even if you're on a limited budget, the sale price of that Dell will contribute to it.

SolvableKnave

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

The Q6600 is still an OK performer so if you add a new graphics card and possibly an SSD you'll get a new lease on life on it for a period, but overall you'd really want to be looking at just getting a new machine. It's not viable at all to upgrade that outdated platform - case, motherboard socket, ram, etc are all useless in that regard. If you could overclock you'd be in a better position but that's not possible in this case.

You can build a new machine for very little these days, for as little as 400 you could build a new system that will run rings around your current system, and you also have to consider that even if you're on a limited budget, the sale price of that Dell will contribute to it.

I hadn't really intended hanging onto anything other than the case and HDD. I'll just need to add a case to the list so.

TerrorFirmer

I'd say just sell the thing as a complete and functional PC and start fresh.

SolvableKnave

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I'd say just sell the thing as a complete and functional PC and start fresh.

Cool. Thanks for the help.