Hello all,
I have a Dell Dimension 8300 with Windows XP home and Office 02 Pro. I have owned it since new and have upgraded a couple things on it. I installed a new ultra silent case fan (with help from you guys here) and a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card. I ordered it maxed out from the factory, with a 3Ghz P4 chip with HT, 1GB or ram, 200GB hard drive, and DVD/CD burner. It has an outdated ATI-all-wonder 9000 Pro 64 graphics card, which makes so much noise when running it is scary! The hard drive also makes quite a bit of noise, it is slow and I think it may be starting to die (heard it skip a couple times!)
I figured that I would keep the unit as-is until Windows Visa was released. Well, it is almost here!! I want to run the ultimate version of Windows Visa with the Aero experince. While I upgrading the computer I want to install more RAM, 2 new hard drives, and a new graphics card. If possible, I'd like to install a 64 bit chip, but I don't know if that can even be done? What should I get? I want quiet, reliable, fast and fully Windows Visa Aero capable.
Thanks for your help!
Need advice on Dell 8300 upgrade...Please Help!
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
Your system doesn't appear to have too much of an ugprade path. The video slot is AGP, so you have some room to upgrade there if you're primarily interested in upgrading your video card.
Do you know what socket your motherboard has? If you don't, download CPUz (Here: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php), unzip it, and run it. If it's Socket 478, you don't have any processor upgrade path (except maybe to a slightly faster chip). If it's Socket 775 a.ka. Socket T, you can get a 64-bit chip, another P4 or a Pentium D if your motherboard supports it. You won't get much of a speed upgrade with another P4 and a PD will be tough to cool silently.
Honestly, if you want more than a video card upgrade, you're better off grabbing a new motherboard with a PCIe video slot. If you want a Core 2 Duo and you want to use your existing DDR memory, make sure you get a Core 2 Duo-compatible board with DDR memory slots (there are a few). Another option would be to get an AMD Socket 939 board and an Athlon 64 (or 64 X2).
Do you know what socket your motherboard has? If you don't, download CPUz (Here: http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php), unzip it, and run it. If it's Socket 478, you don't have any processor upgrade path (except maybe to a slightly faster chip). If it's Socket 775 a.ka. Socket T, you can get a 64-bit chip, another P4 or a Pentium D if your motherboard supports it. You won't get much of a speed upgrade with another P4 and a PD will be tough to cool silently.
Honestly, if you want more than a video card upgrade, you're better off grabbing a new motherboard with a PCIe video slot. If you want a Core 2 Duo and you want to use your existing DDR memory, make sure you get a Core 2 Duo-compatible board with DDR memory slots (there are a few). Another option would be to get an AMD Socket 939 board and an Athlon 64 (or 64 X2).
crossposting (viewtopic.php?t=36265) is usually not very expedient. instead of asking the same question over and over again, you might want to think why there were no satisfactory answers yet.