Upgrading Dells?

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afhouston

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I saw a really good deal for a $399 Dell Dimension 5150 w/ 19in analog flat panel.

has 512 ram (2 sticks), 80gig hd

the processor is a Pentium 4 w/ 533FSB.


Some people say Dell is dumping old junk and I should wait, but it seems this is pretty good considering it includes a 19in flat panel.

They say the worst part of the system is the P4 which supposedly is only slightly better than a Celeron and runs very hot and uses a lot of power?

Do Dell motherboards allows expansion? Can I upgrade this to a Pentium D? I think the mobo has PCI express since the checkout option allows for ATI x600 upgrades, I figure I can get a better card.

If I get the ram upgrade to 1gig it's gonna be $449 w/ free shipping. Then I can buy a video card for $50 from Frys or newegg.

I plan to use the system to play World of Warcraft and maybe games like Civ4 or another RTS. I'm not that crazy about Battlefield 2 or games like that.
 
it's ok for a basic system... it should play the games you want. as long as your not going to get into fps games... (fear, bf2, etc)
 
You would most likely not be able to upgrade to a Pentium D... Your best bet would be another Pentium of the same series, with the same FSB, which would basically only be a MHz gain, and probably not worth it...
 
dell does not let u change or replace their parts. u can only add in. well thats my experience. i had a dell desktop and u cant do anything to it excepting adding agp and pci cards.
 
Yeah, their motherboards are usually locked. But since the multiplier is on Intel CPU's, and not the motherboard, you should be able to upgrade the CPU if it's the same core type and FSB speed.
 
hmm what p4 cpu is it? i have a p4 506 stock 2.66 with 533 fsb and i oc'd it to 3.2. its ok for fear bf2 and bf2142. my setup is the p4 with geforce 6600 and 1gb ram. its all in my sig. i am planning to upgrade to a 7600gt and a core 2 duo sometime in the near future.
 
Yeah, with Dells you can only put things in, many people have tried to change processors but the Dell BIOSes dont support the later processors or earlier processors, you MAY be able to do a BIOS flash, but you would have to go through **** and high water to get an Image that works. Also, it will probably be the Intel i915 Graphics Accelerator, which is crap.

Ruan
 
Well, your best bet would probaby get a new motherboard (IF your Dell is an ATX case, good luck trying to fit a new motherboard in a BTX case...), a new power supply (since Dells are sometimes propietary), and then your new CPU...


Wait... Isn't it just as well to get a new computer? My point exactly :p
 
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