Is upgrade from P4 360 possible?

[ignoramus]

I have a Dell Precision 370 fitted with a P4 360 processor. Is there an upgrade path by just replacing the processor?

 

[MU_Engineer]

I have a Dell Precision 370 fitted with a P4 360 processor. Is there an upgrade path by just replacing the processor?

Possibly. You will want to ask Dell that question as only they know what CPUs the motherboard and BIOS will support.

 

[dragonsprayer]

mobo and cpu

 

[ignoramus]

Possibly. You will want to ask Dell that question as only they know what CPUs the motherboard and BIOS will support.

Unfortunately, both Dell and Intel say "no upgrade possible". (That's very disappointing in view of the claimed upgradability of the Inspiron ranges - it appears that it only meant "space and power available for expansion")

But I should have phrased the question better:
Is this a fundamental limitation of the physical interface, or does someone know of a possible workaround?

 

[B-Unit]

Its a limitation of purchasing from Dell. The BIOS on Dell PCs is designed to support a bare minimum of CPUs so that when it starts to get slow, you run back to Dell and buy a new one rather than upgrading your existing machine.

There may be faster Pentium4 chips, but they wouldn't be worth it. I suggest a whole new PC or attempting to install a new motherboard+CPU.

 

[ignoramus]

Its a limitation of purchasing from Dell. The BIOS on Dell PCs is designed to support a bare minimum of CPUs so that when it starts to get slow, you run back to Dell and buy a new one rather than upgrading your existing machine.

There may be faster Pentium4 chips, but they wouldn't be worth it. I suggest a whole new PC or attempting to install a new motherboard+CPU.

Thank you. I agree I'd get little advantage with another P4 - even one of the two-processor ones (which is why I didn't try to upgrade earlier). I suppose I'll just have to grit my teeth and buy a new system.

It might be E8400 based, as my most time-critical software is single-thread - but now I have to think whether its worth paying the extra for error-correction this time? (Better-informed advice would be welcomed, both as regards ERC and processor selection/configuration)