Dell Dimension 4300 motherboard replacement

rmk9785e

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Jul 29, 2014
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I have this old Dell Dimension 4300 computer with Windows XP SP3. This computer is limited in maximum memory and thus unbearably slow. The logical approach would be to buy a new computer however I have a number of applications on this machine such as MS Office 2010, Adobe Acrobat Pro and others that I am trying to avoid purchasing again.
I'm wondering if a later model Dell motherboard can be purchased from the used market that will fit in this chassis and allow me to keep using my OS and applications.
Alternatively, could I image my disk and move it to a newer model Dell computer, staying legal with my OEM Windows license?
Any advice is appreciated.
 
Solution
Technically if you deactivate the products at the manufacturer's website then you should be able to reinstall them. If that doesn't work, call support and tell them that you upgraded to a new computer and can't move your licenses and they'll fix it for you.
Technically if you deactivate the products at the manufacturer's website then you should be able to reinstall them. If that doesn't work, call support and tell them that you upgraded to a new computer and can't move your licenses and they'll fix it for you.
 
Solution
Pre-Windows 8 OEM (i.e. System Builders/Manufacturer included) licenses, such as yours from Dell, is tied to the motherboard. Installing a newer motherboard would require you to purchase a new license. Purchasing a new license (if you could even find a legitimate Windows license for sale anymore) for a new motherboard would still require you to re-install the OS and all your programs.

-Wolf sends
 
Your OS is the only one that would be problematic. Everything else can be reinstalled, assuming you still have the install media and license keys (Office in particular).

For the OS:
1. You really need to move off XP. It is completely out of any support from MS.
2. A new motherboard will require a new OS install. Along with all your applications
3. Imaging is the same...it will see the new hardware almost certainly won't work.
4. A 'newer model Dell computer' makes no difference. It is a different motherboard. That old XP is licensed to that old motherboard.

Time to move to something different than XP.
 
I know this is an OLD thread and it is too late to help the OP, but for anyone who happens to be searching for info; Not sure what mobos will fit as this is proprietary Dell stuff. It does not bolt in the way regular generic mobos do. And it has a different power supply setup from what I've been able to discover. It is the standard 20 pin, but the pinouts are not atx standard. Note that this was written 7/15 so prices may change but the prices I give are good as of this writing. I alos realize that the OP wanted to stay with XP, which while understandable, is not a good idea from a security POV at this stage. But my comments will apply whether you stay with Xp or go with Win 7. The only real diff will be the issue of graphics card drivers, where XP will make things easier. The lack of TRIM in XP is a non-issue as the PCI bus will limit SSD speeds, not the lack of TRIM.

That said, you can do quite a bit with this machine. A 3.0GHz P4 is available (though it will run you $40 whereas the 2.8GHz will be $10-$15). Look for a Northwood P4 with 400MHz FSB. The 2.8 is an SL7EY. These top end Northwood P4s will also have more cache, nothing to shout about in terms of modern stuff, but every little bit helps. These will come with 512k cahce. Yes 1GB of pc133 is the max for this board. Expect to pay about $10 for the two 512MB ram sticks.

But there is still more you can do to bring this up to more modern standards.

You can add a PCI gigbit network card to speed up internet access. Expect to pay around $5-$10 for this. The original is a 10/100 so the 10/100/1000 gigabit card will really make a difference.

You can add a cheap SIL3114 or SIL3124 PCI SATA/RAID card and get SATA I (3114) or even SATA II (3124, though not sure how much faster SATA II would actually be on a PCI bus). That will let you add an SSD, which will at least double your drive speed even at "just" SATA I. And although TRIM will not work with these SIL cards, the SSD will be so fast that even without trim, it will max out the PCI bus. The best SSDs will have one of the good Sandforce controllers, that have better garbage collection. The 3114 should run less than $10 and the 3124 about $15. A good used SSD should be around $30 for between 60 and 120 GB. I got an Enterprise class brand new Cloudspeed 500 120GB for $35. This has great speed (in fact way more than this system will ever be able to tap) but it also has 3x the longevity of consumer SSDs and has power failure protection with on-board caps to ensure the cache is written to nand in the event of power loss.

Lastly the graphics card is where you can make a big difference. The original card is a joke. Even some of the "upgrades" will bench so bad you can't believe it. But you can get relatively cheap 512MB cards that will work with this system. Avoid the Geforce options like the Geforce 6200. Unless you are going to stick with XP, the Vista/Win 7 drivers for these are AFU. They seem to only properly support the PCI-e versions and not the AGP versions. The best option is probably an ATI Radeon HD 3450. I know the PowerColor Radeon HD3450 512MB card works great in this board and the drivers are good with Win 7. Expect to pay about $20-$25 for the Radeon HD 3450 w/512MB. I just got one brand new in the box, for that. This card does need a Molex 4 pin power connection, BTW.

So what does all this get you? Well the Windows Experience Index is not a great benchmark, but it will give you some idea of the results. So here is mine;

Processor (2.8GHz) ----------3.8
Memory (1GB pc133) ---------3.8
Desktop Graphics (HD3450) --3.4
Gaming Graphics (HD3450)---5.4
Primary Hard Drive (SSD) -----6.5 (this is limited by the PCI bus not the SSD)

Most will not have Win 7 on their 4300, so they may not have anything to compare this to. Before these changes, most of the scores on my 4300 with Win 7 were below 2 and a number of them were so low they could not be scored so they got a 1. So there are some *significant* improvements here.

Obviously this will never be a barn burner, but for under $100 you can make this a useable machine. Just don't expect to be running a handful of apps at the same time. My 4300 is about as fast as my older Core2Duo laptop. In some ways is it actually faster, (when disk access is significant), and in some ways it is a bit slower (when ram and CPU are significant). The nice thing is that with the swap file on the SSD, that has a lot less of an effect on speed. Between that and the 1GB, the memory based slowdowns are a lot less troublesome.

And yes this all runs off the stock PSU and does just fine. I had to get some Molex/SATA adapters for the SSD and the extra HD I added (I set this up with a 160GB IDE HD, a 160GB SATA HD and the 120GB SSD, plus an IDE DVD-RW and an IDE CD-R), and I had to get some Molex splitters. But in the end, the PSU was still able to handle everything, even when stress tested with OCCT.


 

Marc where did you find that video card? I've looked and the cheapest I could find it was $100. I upgraded the proc to 3.00ghz for only $3 off ebay but really need a video card as the gforce one I have does not work right.
 


Yeah the Geforce cards simply will not work properly with anything but XP as far as I could tell. This is the actual card I got, http://www.ebay.com/itm/181800106520?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT You'll have to shop around, and it may take a while to find one at a decent price (folks are getting kind of greedy on these now) but you can find them. I found this one the first day I looked. I'll let you know if I come across any others. Admittedly I got a great deal, and you may have to pay more than I did. But $100 is just robbery.

BTW you got a steal on the CPU, cheapest I could find the 3GHz for was $40, that's why I went with the 2.8GHz. So even if you have to pay a bit more for the graphics card, you'll still come out okay with what you saved on the CPU.
 
You might try one of these as an alternative
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Radeon-X1650-PRO-512MB-DDR2-VGA-S-Video-DVI-AGP-102G017940-Video-Card-Tested-/131575818586?hash=item1ea287a95a

or

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ATI-Technologies-ATI-Radeon-X1600-Pro-512-MB-DDR2-SDRAM-AGP-/131576198733?hash=item1ea28d764d

These are supported all the way up to Win 10, so Win 7 is no problem.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Type=Hardware&Name=AMD+Radeon+X1650+PRO+AGP+GDDR2+512MB+Graphics+Card&ModelOrVersion=100-437808&Vendor=AMD&Locale=1033%2C2057%2C3081%2C4105%2C16393&LastSearchTerm=AMD%2BRadeon%2BX1650%2BPRO%2Bagp&BreadcrumbPath=AMD+Radeon+X1650+PRO+agp&TempOsid=Windows+7

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductDetailsViewer?Name=ATI%20Radeon%20X1600%20PRO%20AGP%20512MB%20Graphics%20Card&vendor=AMD&Locale=1028%2C1031%2C1033%2C1036%2C1041%2C1042%2C1043%2C1046%2C1049%2C2052%2C2057%2C3081%2C3084%2C4105%2C16393&BreadCrumbPath=AMD%20Radeon%20X1600%20PRO%20AGP&LastSearchTerm=AMD%2BRadeon%2BX1600%2BPRO%2BAGP&Type=Hardware&tempOsid=Windows%207

There are probably other Radeon AGP cards that will work on this board, give you 512MB and are properly supported under Win 7 and up.

If you are going to spend more than $30-$40 for a card I suggest you seriously consider this card which has 1GB of memory. making a 512MB card at $100 seem ridiculous

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sapphire-ATI-Radeon-HD-4650-1GB-4-8X-AGP-Dual-DVI-Video-Card-TV-/301707522244?hash=item463f2b70c4

It is also supported through Win 10.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/CompatCenter/ProductViewerWithDefaultFilters?TempOsid=Windows%2010&Locale=en-us&Architecture=X64&TextSearch=Radeon%2BHD%2B4650%2B1GB&Type=Both&CurrentPage=0&TotalPages=1&ShowCriteria=0&SortCriteria=Relevance&Compatibility=Unknown&LastRequested=14
 

unfortunately I have the 4300s so for me the agp slot and only the agp slot is low profile the pci slots are standard I have found 256 cards in the $25 range but nothin bigger under $100. The proc was a great find it was actually $2.95 with shipping.
 


A local guy had one of the same cards as I got, but I went with the one on ebay because it was cheaper and unused. I can see if he still has it, if you'd like. He was asking $50 for it and would only sell locally, cash, no shipping etc. I know his CL post is gone, but I do have his address and I can check for you if you'd like. It is the exact same card as I bought, though the one I got appeared to be unused while I know his was used as it was in running machine when I first contacted him. Yeah that CPU was a great deal. I paid more than that for the 2.8GHz. :-(
 


I found 1 for $25 just waiting to hear back on wether its low profile or not. Thanks for asking tho. I'll let you know I this one doesn't work out.
 


I have a question for you. After you upgraded the CPU where you able to upgrade to windows 10?