Processor swap on a Dimenssion 2300

[criollorico]

Hi guys and gals I'm new to the community and fairly new to tweaking and modding computers ,I found your forum to be the most informative thats why I joined.Now here's my first question .I have an old Dell dimension 2300 that came with a Celeron 1.79GHz , I know I cant overclock it because I cant acces the FSB but the same motherboard takes a P4 1.80GHz and I happen to have one of those can I swap w/o problems?It originally came w/ 128 Megs of Ram I upgraded to 1G Thanks for your insight.

 

[raybay]

It can be done, but you will have a few problems to overcome. Just do a lot of reading. You may need tech experience, depending on the exact model of the replacement processor.
The Dell Dimension 2300 is a fragile, basic, budget desktop model with a limited motherboard. It will detect that it no longer has the original cpu, and if the timings and setup are very far off, it will not boot. But you will not damage anything.
The main problem will be finding the details for changing the BIOS and motherboard setup. You can locate and download them at the Dell site, but you will need to explore the site for the 2300 that has a Pentium CPU so you can download the correct BIOS and chipset.
The difficult part may be booting up so that you can install the correct bios, and chipset so it will boot... a circular catch 22.
But you can get lucky, and have the cpu work the first time. It is a matter of luck, which Pentium you have, etc.

 

[criollorico]

Dimenssion 2300 processor swap

Hey thanks I really appreciate it, this is just a project I'm indulging in to see if I can get more out of it. but thanks foryour comment,I'll chek the Dell sight and read up some more.

 

[criollorico]

Procesor swap on a Dell dim. 2300

Hey thanks for the input I didnt get overzealous I just swapped the original whimpy Celeron 1.8GHz for a P4 1.8GHz, and the improvement is very noticable it was pretty much a clean swap, I'm going to be even happier when I build my dual core Athlon after christmast. thanks again rayray.