How big a boost would I get from going to 2.8GHz?

[ChuChuX5]

Currently, I've got a Pentium IV 2.0GHz Northwood 400FSB and the highest I can go up to is 3.06GHz Northwood 533FSB which is extremely hard to find, so I'd have to settle for a 2.8GHz Northwood 533FSB. As for the other components, they are 512MB PC800 RDRAM, GeForce4 MX420 64MB AGP (may switch to GeForce 6600GT), 200GB hard drive and a stock Dell 250W PSU at +12V/14A. I'm looking to put modern games on graphically High Settings, 1024x768, no AA/AF or very little AA.

 

[Crashman]

I'm not so certain about "all", I think some might have used 24-pin power and even the old fashioned Auxilliary Power connector.

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[Crashman]

Yeh, you have to watch out using "all" where "most" would suffice.

I think the oddball Dells these days can still use an EPS12v power supply, while other Dells use standard ATX. Ever since the P4 anyway.

At least you don't have something with the right connectors but the wrong wiring order like they did in the PIII days and earlier.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[P4Man]

Your biggest bottleneck is your GPU. Get the 6600GT first, and then decide wether you need more power. IF you do, I would consider dumping the entire PC and getting something new. not much point in getting a new gpu, cpu, psu, more (exotic, and [edit] NOT [/edit]that fast) ram.. and still end up having a mid end pc. If the GPU upgrade doesnt do it, ebay the Dell, and build yourself a nice upgradeble A64 system. But my guess is the videocard upgrade will allow you to play todays games at those settings fast enough.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by P4Man on 05/17/05 01:14 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Starfishy]

Yeah, I think I have to agree with P4Man, I was surpised to hear Wusy tell him to get a new PSU. I am always of the opinion that you only get the PSU upgrade if its needed. I have made plenty of rigs that have been stable and had good voltages with generic PSU's. I would have said that the GPU was the bottleneck, just like P4Man suggested. I don't know if the "scrap it" mentality is the best view here though. It would be nice to upgrade everything, but try to work with what you've got to save a buck or two. This system isn't "drastically" out of date, so just patch it until you need to amputate.

 

[P4Man]

> I was surpised to hear Wusy tell him to get a new PSU

No, its understandable. 250W isn't a lot those days; however, those OEM PSU's tend to be far better than the wattage would lead you to believe. I agree, try with old PSU first; if its not enough for a high power GPU like a 6600, then upgrade it. But its worth pointing out that its indeed possible he might have to upgrade it (and apparently *can* upgrade it, unlike with older Dells).

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Starfishy]

Yeah... I know that he might have to replace it... in fact it might be more propper to say that he will "likely" have to replace it. But I think it was Wusy that once told me to never upgrade a PSU unless it proves to you that it can't hack it.

 

[endyen]

I will disagree with you on that.
If he buys an agp card now, and then needs to upgrade his mobo, he looses a lot of options.
We are talking a P4a, with rdram here. The chip will bottlekneck the graphics card. Even the P4b he is talking about will hold back the GT card. His system in general is past use for gaming. His memory is already minimal, his chip is crap, and his graphics card is no longer supported. No point throwing good money after bad.

 

[Clob]

I do believe that Rambus has to be used in pairs... He will need 2x256 chips to upgrade. I suggest saving some $$$ and just getting a new system man. But if you do not want to do that. The 6600gt will up the play a good bit.

"If youre paddling upstream in a canoe and a
wheel falls off, how many pancakes fit in a doghouse? None! Icecream doesn't have bones!!!"

"Battling Gimps and Dimbulbs HERE at THGC"

 

[DCB_AU]

Get the upgrade AGP card now, then later just upgrade the CPU-775, MB-ASUS P5P800 and DDR2Ram.

<font color=red><b>DCB</b></font color=red><font color=white><b>_</b></font color=white><font color=blue><b>AU</b></font color=blue>

 

[P4Man]

>If he buys an agp card now, and then needs to upgrade his
>mobo, he looses a lot of options.

Not really. If he finds out the AGP alone doesn't do it for him, either he returns the card and switches to an all new PCI-E system, or upgrades his CPU to a 2.8. There is no way a 2.8 GHz P4 with a decent AGP card will not be good enough for him, and most likely, just a new AGP card will do the trick. He now has a GeForce4 <b>MX420</b>, the crappiest of MXs, which is already the slowest series of (pseudo) DX8 cards ever made. A celeron 300 would be bottlenecked by that card.

I stand by my advice: buy a new AGP videocard. In the (unlikely?) event that alone doesn't cut it, either return it (and buy a new system), or keep it and buy a new 2.8 cpu as well.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[soldat]

I see 2 potential problems, someone correct me if I'm wrong. Please name one Dell that comes with an agp slot, I cant. The second is how can he put 533fsb in a 400fsb board , since most dells with a 2.0 p4 are 400fsb only?

 

[confoundicator]

Please name one Dell that comes with an agp slot, I cant.

My brother has a Dell Dimension 8300. He took out the FX5200 that it came with and put in a 9800 Pro (and it's been rock stable for over a year now).

<font color=blue>Good judgement comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgement.</font color=blue>

 

[boldgamer]

As far as putting in a new PSU you will most likely have to mod your case because Dell uses a slightly different PSU than you can get from third party vendors. They do not have an I/O switch on the back of their PSU's. Thier PSU's are entirely enclosed within the case. Any PSU you buy that has an on off switch on the back will not be able to fit because of this. The PSU you buy will have to say that it will work with a Dell PC. If you go to their forum their are a lot of topics on this and there is a link to a website that makes PSU's specially for Dell cases.

Dimension 8400
P4 550 (3.40GHZ)
1GB dual DDR2 (400mhz)
128MB Radeon x300SE
250GB SATA (7200RPM)
16x DVD ROM
16x Dual Layer DVD +/- RW

 

[P4Man]

I was going by what he said: that he could go up to 3.06/533 and the GF4 MX was an AGP card.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[Zoron]

Plenty of Dells have an AGP slot. Only the micro designs with onboard everything may lack an AGP slot. There was also a time when integrated graphics meant no AGP slot... but that is a thing of the past.

<font color=red> If you design software that is fool-proof, only a fool will want to use it. </font color=red>