rick1974 said:
Thanks again for searching. I have done a bit of digging myself, and some people have told me that I can only upgrade/update my motherboard with dell. But I find this hard to grasp. However, are the mobos you have advised me on upgraded? You also mentioned that some connectors might not be compatible, what would be the answer, and would a new case be req'd too?
It's just before I commit to buy I want to be 150% sure, so I don't have to mess about sending things back etc. I think I'll be competent enough to fit the mobo, but if the connecors are different, would I be able to cut and solder the wires to the old connectors?
There is a lot of misinformation out there, but I have some experience with this range of dell systems, and they're fairly standard parts. The only proprietary parts are the front panel connections(hd led, power button), and usb/mic connections. This dell doesn't use a non standard power supply unlike some previous dells did. It's a standard atx supply, and the board is standard micro atx form factor socket 478 with ddr support.
I will say that if you get a bunch of new parts, you
may need a new power supply anyway(yours is either 200 or 250w), since the new parts will draw more power. You can find what you'll need as far as wattage here.
http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp
Just put in your parts and get the calculation.
If you get the board I listed it will connect to your current parts(cpu, ram, hard drive, cd drive, etc), but the front panel connectors will likely not line up. To fix this, cut the dell ends off and solder standard front panel connectors onto the wires(or otherwise modify the connector to work on the new board). If you don't want to do that, you could buy a new case, but it's not necessary.
For performance type computers I agree that people should generally "avoid dell," but at this point you already have the dell, so you might as well upgrade what you have if you don't have a large budget to completely redo the system or buy a new one.
I will note another inconvenience for you. If you replace the motherboard and it isn't "broken," you legally(according to microsoft) have to buy a new copy of xp (hey if your pci slots won't work right maybe it already is "broken"
). Now I know for a fact you can reuse the xp you have(which will likely run into activation issues and require calling microsoft and telling them "my motherboard broke, I replaced it, and now I can't activate..."), but I can't officially recommend that...
Also, you should backup all important data before doing anything to your system, you might have to reinstall windows.
Oh, and I almost forgot, you might need a new heatsink for the cpu. It depends on how the board fits. If it won't line up with the dell heatshroud, then you will likely have to either get an active heatsink(one with a fan, most of the dells in this series are passive(no fan), and rely on a duct to pull air through the heatsink.), or you could modify the shroud to fit the new board. As a side note, the green duct hinges upward if you release the tabs on the bottom. Either way, remember you need to reapply thermal compound(grease) to the cpu. First you'd clean the cpu and the heatsink until bare shiny metal shows on the entire contact surface of both parts. I usually use isopropyl alcohol(91%) to clean thermal grease off. I recommend artic silver 5 thermal compound, it's the best I've used, it only takes a small dab, the size of a grain of rice between the cpu and the heatsink.
For reference, this is what your computer will look like inside. Picture from ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Dimension-...QQihZ006QQcategoryZ140070QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I'll hotlink from imageshack, instead of ebay, to keep them happy.
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Hope this is helpful. If you need any more help regarding "redoing" your dell, feel free to ask, I've done this on models in this series so I know how it's done.
