madav

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Hello,
I have the Dell 2.6ghz Pentium II CPU on this board. (took a while to figure out this is the board #, the Dell tag on the motherboard says AA C25595-606).

Are there newer/faster CPU's that will run on this board?
 
Solution
You can buy (if you are in the US) a used late model P4 computer for about $100, RAM, drive, CPU and all. If you check around you'll find one with a SATA drive or connnector.

madav

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Thank You !

My motherboard actually shows up on diagnostics as a DELL motherboard (it is not Intel or other). It is also tagged DELL on the label on it. I am certain Dell did not physically made the board, it sells boards someone else made - - but that is how it is labeled. Just like my monitor is a Dell 992. Dell didn't make that component either, but that is the only identifiying information available.

As to Pentium II? That was definately a typo! I know its a Pentium 4.

This is most helpful information to me, much appreciated !!!

- Mark

 

madav

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PS A simple enhancement with more advanced CPU / socket will not cost a lot, or take a lot of time to install. My PC pretty much does what it needs to do, a little extra kick would still be nice when I watch streaming video & like... But it works well all ready.

I will be getting a 2nd, larger hard drive soon. But this hard drive is a 100ATA 7200RPM drive, a change to a 133ATA 7200 RPM drive will, as one posting suggested, give a little more performance boost, as well...

Wonderful information, I figured someone on this site would have the tech info I needed.

Appreciated - Mark !
 


If you are interested in improving video quality, get a new video card (although I don't know what you have now), a faster CPU would not affect that much. More RAM will also help.

If you have SATA connnections on the motherboard (very likely as I have seen them on systems around the same age as yours), get a SATA drive and a SATA cable, maybe a ATA to SATA power adapter, don't get a new ATA drive. The new SATA drives made in the last few years will have a large performance increase over the older ATA drives.

For the Dell branding, yes the motherboard will be listed as a DELL, but you listed the chip as a DELL "Dell 2.6ghz Pentium II CPU", which reads like the CPU is a DELL, it's not. A Pentium chip will always be branded as Intel. What you have is a Dell motherboard with an Intel P4 chip. May not seem like a big difference, but it reads differently. Like when people talk about wireless routers when they mean wireless adpaters or "computer is not turning on" when the monitor is the one not turning on.
 

madav

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Hi,
0M2035 is the Motherboard model #. On the board itself it was stamped AA C25595-606 , but a utility listed the board as DELL 0M2035.
The 2.6ghz Pentium 4 CPU is (obviously) by Intel. The PC is a DELL. I thought that would be clear enough!

The only reason for a CPU change would be to take advantage of hyperthreading. A small change in clock speed is not a giant step, for sure. Hyperthreading will do more than that - and, I am betting the CPU I need will be plenty cheap today at a trade show.... Its not state of the art multi-processor, its older tech.

What I was after was a CHEAP upgrade. Obviously a video card will greatly improve video performance. For $80 (or less) I could get a card with 500mb of DDR2 Ram & Direct x 10. The last time I did a major video card upgrade, my monitor burned out in 3 days. This is an older monitor, I am not out to push it with newer tech to performance levels it was never designed to do!

I have an older NVIDEA AGP 8X type card with 256k of ram on it. When I eventually go flat screen (probably when this monitor burns out), then it would make more sense to push the video performance more...

Replacing the hard drive is not for performance, only because I am almost out of space! ATA 100 is still a pretty decent speed. Serial ATA (SATA) is the newest standard. I have not price compared in quite a few years. For all I know SATA may be what is typically on the shelves these days...? Price will be a factor. It may be SATA is the same price as ATA 133 now. Don't know, haven't looked yet!

Years ago I went to trade shows to trade PC parts every year because the hardware was never what it needed to be. I probably changed 8 modems, several video cards, a couple CPU's, one motherboard, various memory, CD & DVD drives, etc... I stopped doing that when I got this machine because it has met my requirements decently. I am still on XP Pro, no plans to upgrade that either, near future... Works fine!

Back in 2002 or 2003 when I got this machine, it was a killer. It was not top of the line tech, but not far behind. Had the 800 mhz dual channel bus, 120GB drive, AGP video bus, DDR2 RAM, etc... I went to DSL and stopped upgrading then & there... replaced my CD burner with a DVD burner - when the CD burned out! Everything else is STILL original hardware. Yikes? You bet. Never had a machine hold up like that before.

When there is a genuine need, I will do a major upgrade. It may make more sense to simply replace the entire machine by then, because we are talking hardware that is physically over 8 years old... almost all of it!
Motherboard, Power Supply, Graphics Card, etc... That may be when XP support is totally gone & Windows 8 comes out... 2014?

Not planning big changes, a couple small ones - ok. Big ones, not a this time!

- Mark

















 
In newegg there is ONE ATA133 drive for sale that is $65. There are over 200 SATA drives that start at $35. ATA has not been a standard for computers in years. If you have a SATA connector, get a SATA drive.

If you have an AGP bus on that computer, not worth getting a new video card. But you also can't "push" an older monitor to break it. It's not like a old car that will break if you drive it at max speed all day. The only thing that may happen is that a powerfull video card will need a power supply upgrade or it won't run or won't be stable. I think you mean you video card has 256 meg of RAM, not 256k.
 

madav

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Hi,
A 500mb DDR2 video card would make a difference. On checking specs, I see I have 128MB (vs 256), but it is not worth the cost to me for a machine that may be traded in within a couple years - either way.

And I did blow my last monitor just 3 days after upgrading my video card. The old CRT's are not like flat screens. You cannot exceed design specs without consequence. 3 days was a surprisingly fast consequence... As to old cars? I was late to a job interview, and pushed an old car too hard. When I got there, there was oil all over the ground - I blew a ring gasket, so that may not have been a perfect analogy for me (grin). You can damage old cars, as well !

There might even be a direct-x issue. I haven't really looked into that standard. My card only supports up to direct-x 8. If I got a direct-x 10 card, there might even be an issue whether xp will support direct-x 10. You are only as good as your weakest link. Whether it be the speed your monitor is capable of running at, your power supply, or other. Replacing one thing may need multiple things to get everything.
Not the direction I am going with on this machine now !

You are right about power supply. I was shocked recently when I look at the wattage on it. I seem to recall something like 340 watts... not a monster for sure!
I am pretty sure the SATA standard is newer than my power supply (2002 or 2003). Fast ATA was a pretty new standard at the time I got this machine. Even to add a 2nd hard drive, I may be forced to upgrade the power supply...

Hard drive is a must. All my friends said check newegg prices when I add it. Have not been there yet, but one friend said they had a 2 Terabyte drive for $79 recently. Yikes? You are saying they have SATA drives for just $35. Wow...

Every time I bought anything tech, it was way cheaper than the last time I did.
Its been quite a few years now, but those prices still surprise me. Not like anything I'd seen before.. Times clearly have changed - as they always do!

- Mark






 

madav

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PS an ATA to SATA power adapter? Interesting option. But given the size of my power supply, if prices are not that high, may be best to simply upgrade the wattage. Gotta lookup the form factor, connectors needed, etc... That specs link you referenced might have that on it... if not s/b able to get a part number off the supply itself & get specs from that (or get it from dell).

CPU depends on price. If not too much, there will be a noticable gain going to hyperthreading tech. But not going to invest too much into an old machine!

- Mark
 
340 watt is fine for a second hard drive, it's more that what many modern computer have, which is really a shame. You may need to get an adapter for your power supply though for the SATA drive, unless you have a SATA power cable on the power suupply. And check your motherboard for SATA ports, you may not even have any to use.
 

Mrsh4dy

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This is not an old thread revived right?:p I really thought so at first:p

Any way isn't there a way you can upgrade or something through dell?
I once had a dell and it was mighty difficult just figuring out what it has or has not and what it could or could not handle, I just decided to build my own instead.
So that would be my advice.
Though ofcourse it all depends on what you're doing with it and what your budget allows.
Still you should really look into how much an upgrade is gonna cost you because anything above a 100/150 bucks is money wasted on such an old machine.
 

madav

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Hi,
I am thinking very few changes at this time, due to the age of the machine.

A hard drive is absolutely needed, I am way low on space. A bigger power supply may be needed to support a 2nd drive, because mine is pretty small. I was thinking my power supply might not have a SATA power connector, but more to the point, my motherboard would not a connector either. An ATA to SATA adapter would enable me to buy a SATA drive & hook it up, but I am betting it would run on the old ATA standard, which is what my motherboard recognizes. The only advantage being, if the drive plus adapater is cheaper than simply buying an ATA 133 drive...

The only reason I even thought CPU is, the last time I bought a CPU I got it dirt cheap. This is old tech so I am betting it would not cost a lot, and would buy me hyperthreading - which would be a nice little boost. That is a maybe option. Have not looked at prices or been to a trade show in a long time... if it is cheap, I will likely go that route. Why not?

Eventually I need to migrate from XP Pro, replace the old CRT monitor, etc...
As you say, when there are enough changes it is easier/cheaper to trade into a newer tech machine. That day is definately coming - but not quite yet !!!

I am also considering the age of existing hardware & the liklihood of failure
increases every year on all of the components... Big bucks are not going into the PC, but a couple fast fixes? Absolutely!

- Mark !
 

Mrsh4dy

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Wasn't the pentium IV Hyperthreading sort of broken and not as fast as amd's offerings at the same time? (it's what I remembered anyway)

Anyway the 340 watts for another HDD is fine (as posted above)
However do check if your MB can support a hdd above a certain amount of gigabyte I have heard of problems with it.
Also it is really hard to know if any of the new drives would even properly work with the old MB

Lenovo 500GB 7200 Rpm 500 GB, 8 MB S-ATA/150
is an old one though you should obviously check if they are still available (I don't live in the us)

Still I cannot see the reason of going this route when it's only costing alot of effort and possibly more expensive in the long run.
Windows xp is also hard to come by these days and it's not going to improve by time.

Anyway this is all the advice I can give since old tech is far from being my specialty
 

madav

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HI,
I have most of the specs on my PC now. Took a little digging... some came from Dell, some came from utilities revealing what my hardware really is (Belarc Advisor, Norton Utils, etc), the rest came from reading the parts themself. I am pretty well documented now.

Yes, I do recall there was a long spell when AMD had much higher benchmaks for the buck than Intel. I didn't recall hyperthreading being broken in any way, though, so I went to Wikipedia to see what it said there... Here is an excerpt of what Wikipedia says about hyperthreading (when implementing with a single one cpu);

Hyper-threading works by duplicating certain sections of the processor—those that store the architectural state—but not duplicating the main execution resources. This allows a hyper-threading processor to appear as two "logical" processors to the host operating system, allowing the operating system to schedule two threads or processes simultaneously.... etc ... Intel claims up to a 30% performance improvement compared with an otherwise identical, non-simultaneous multithreading Pentium 4. (even if only 15%, that would be a decent gain).

The article goes on to say there were competing technologies that worked even better, and at first, there were not a lot of programs written to take advantage of multi-processing. There was also a potential for the theft of cryptographic keys. Today's applications are written to support SMP, and virus protection software is more sophisticated and prevents that kind of attack... No longer an issue. We are talking about when that tech first emerged. I'm betting that is basically what you are recalling? I vaguely recall that.... There was scheme of the day for CPU's, it seemed, that everyone was coming up with as the next great thing with all manner of clever, elaborate schemes. And, all worked to different degrees.... It was a race to come up with the best of the best designs...

Now if I could find this used Pentium 4 which has a lot parts I could use to upgrade with for just $100 (?) as suggested above, I would not be against marriage of the best parts of both machines. Done that before. When it makes sense, why not!
I'm not sure how easy that would be to come by - especially if it has parts that I would really want to upgrade to... but that could be another option.

Will have to get to a near future trade show and browse a few catalogues like
newegg to see what is standard pricing today, and what is a major deal... most of my upgrade parts in the past were not new store parts. I can't recall one that didn't do the job, so far... saved me a lot of money.

All of these posts have been helpful, gave me some ideas I had not been considering. May wind up pointing me in a different direction when I do a little updating.

Appreciate all the ideas & tips that have been posted! There is more than one path out there to achieve a similar end result. Will see which one works out best!

Much Appreciated,
- Mark :)->

PS Just checked online, apparently my model PC has a 250 watt power supply ... but Dell under-rates them by a lot.