- Aug 27, 2013
- 147
- 0
- 10,710
Note: Dell XPS 410 and 9200 users can use this guide as well all the CPUs and GPUs from this guide are compatible with your system but your PSUs can be upgraded and you have more space in your computer so you can fit larger graphics cards in your system. Some people the have some useful information below for you please take the time to read the comments if you would like further information on your system and if you have specific questions please post below and I or another person can help you and give advice on what ever you need for your computer.
Fransomer has some helpful info and links make sure to read his comments
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2172407/upgradeing-dell-dimension-9200c-dell-xps-210-guide.html#14743453
First off I'm starting this thread for people who are looking to upgrade there Dell dimension 9200c I making this to help you get the most out of your little pc this thread will be updated as I continue to upgrade this PC. I'm going to research and find all that I can on this pc and post it here on this thread just so people won't have to scavenge the internet looking for clues on how to make your system better. Also if find any of my other forum posts those will not be updated because that was me doing research on upgrading the computer but find I was able to get a little help from the community here and I hope to do the same for all of you reading this:
First lets talk about compatible cpus I had alot of difficultly finding information on this matter but with enough digging I found the following to be compatible with the 9200c
Intel core 2 processors:
Q6700 x4 2.66GHz
Q6600 x4 2.40GHz
E6700 x2 2.67GHz
E6600 x2 2.40GHz
E6420 x2.2.13GHz (4MB L2 Cache)
E6400 x2 2.13GHz (2MB L2 Cache)
E6320 x2 1.87GHz (4MB L2 Cache)
E6300 x2 1.87GHz (2MB L2 Cache)
Xeon Processors:
X3230 x4 2.67GHz (ever so slightly faster than the Q6700 uses less power best cpu for the 9200c)
x3220 x4 2.40GHz
x3210 x4 2.13GHz
As long as the cpu has a fbs speed of 1066 or lower it should work. Also the cpus need to be LGA775 slot as well.
Note: The Core 2 Quads and Xeon Quadcores I have listed are only compatible if you have updated your bios to 2.3.2 or higher I recommend 2.4.0 as it is the latest bios update.
Next is RAM the only ram this system supports DDR2 SDRAM Dell will tell you this computer only supports up 4GB of ram at a max speed of 800MHz. This is wrong the bios will recognize 8GB of 800MHz ram as long as you have a 64bit OS the ram will be fully functional
Compatible GPUs
AMD Radeon HD 6450 (tested confirmed working)
AMD Radeon HD 7750 (confirmed by other user)
ASUS GeForce 210 Silent 1GB DDR3 (confirmed by RAART)
Galaxy GTX 750 ti 2GB DDR5 (low profile)
MSI N750ti-2GD5TLP GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB
More to come
Cooling and adding fans
Note: I use artic 5 silver thermal compound and temps were recorded on a Xeon x3230 CPU temps maybe slightly higher or lower than mine when useing other cpus.
You can add fans to this computer to make it run cooler alot of people who use this system have encountered heat problems most happens when they up grade to a quad core I know from experience when you upgrade to a quad core you will most likely get idle temps of 40-50 depending on what you put in the system but this can be cured by add a fan and mounting it to the heatsink in order to do this you need the following:
sata power male to sata female y splitter (so you have a cable to plug in to the hardrive still and one for the fans)
sata to molex adapter (and if your fans dont come with it a adpater to plug in your fans to molex)
40mm fan to mount to the back of the case by the PSU which gets supriseingly hot and with this little fan it actually helps a whole lot it will run much cooler.
60mmx10mm fan to mount to the heatsink puting this fan on can be a little tricky due to the blades often hitting the heat sink so it will need to be mounted cafefully toward the center of the heat sink it will slot right in but I recommend adding two screws to the top hole on the fan to keep it secure.
These are the fans I used:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055&cm_re=60mm_fan-_-35-119-055-_-Product
Useing just these fans brought my idle temps down to the mid 20s which is great for this system.
Geting a SSD improves temps as well If you move the ssd under the disc drive in the case and allowing the hardrive to run helps air circulate in the case especially if you have a graphics card installed in the case since the ssd I use never really runs hot to begin with.
Another good idea is changing with thermal compund on the northbridge which would help improve temps a little and reduce random stutters due to a over heating northbridge I used Artic 5 silver for mine its pretty easy to do just unclip the northbridge heatsink remove the thermal compound from the northbridge chip with a dry cloth (make sure you get most of it off the heatsink too) and apply your recommened thermal compound a tiny drop will do.
Trouble shooting windows 8 AHCI mode bios glitch
Okay so for people who will be wanting to activate AHCI and do a clean install of windows 8 there is a glitch in the bios I found that if you format the SSD to remove your old os to install windows 8 for some reason the bios with freeze up at the AHCI screen and will become completely in accessable you will not be able to go to the boot menu or enter bios setup at all however this can be fixed. Unplug the power from your computer and remove you SSD then boot up the computer without the SSD installed. Hit f2 repeatedly until it says entering set up you will be able to go past the AHCI screen and enter the bios setup set your bios back to ata mode then power off your computer and reinstall your SSD. Turn your compter back on and boot from the device you are installing windows 8 from. When windows 8 asks you for custom or upgrade pick custom and it will show you the SSD and you will find that the SSD has data on it from the previous windows 8 installation attempt delete all the partitions that the previous windows 8 made untill you are left with just unallocated space. (DO NOT INSTALL WINDOWS 8 RIGHT AFTER THIS) After you have deleted the partitions restart your computer and press f2 to get into the bios and renable AHCI mode. Then install windows 8 normally and it should be fine.
Questions if you have any please respond to this post and I will answer them ASAP.
My Current specs for The Dimension 9200c
Intel Xeon x3230 x4 2.67GHz processor
8GB DDR2 800MHz Dell certified RAM
Galaxy GTX 750 ti (low profile)
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB(AHCI enabled in bios)
Windows 8 professional
Fransomer has some helpful info and links make sure to read his comments
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2172407/upgradeing-dell-dimension-9200c-dell-xps-210-guide.html#14743453
First off I'm starting this thread for people who are looking to upgrade there Dell dimension 9200c I making this to help you get the most out of your little pc this thread will be updated as I continue to upgrade this PC. I'm going to research and find all that I can on this pc and post it here on this thread just so people won't have to scavenge the internet looking for clues on how to make your system better. Also if find any of my other forum posts those will not be updated because that was me doing research on upgrading the computer but find I was able to get a little help from the community here and I hope to do the same for all of you reading this:
First lets talk about compatible cpus I had alot of difficultly finding information on this matter but with enough digging I found the following to be compatible with the 9200c
Intel core 2 processors:
Q6700 x4 2.66GHz
Q6600 x4 2.40GHz
E6700 x2 2.67GHz
E6600 x2 2.40GHz
E6420 x2.2.13GHz (4MB L2 Cache)
E6400 x2 2.13GHz (2MB L2 Cache)
E6320 x2 1.87GHz (4MB L2 Cache)
E6300 x2 1.87GHz (2MB L2 Cache)
Xeon Processors:
X3230 x4 2.67GHz (ever so slightly faster than the Q6700 uses less power best cpu for the 9200c)
x3220 x4 2.40GHz
x3210 x4 2.13GHz
As long as the cpu has a fbs speed of 1066 or lower it should work. Also the cpus need to be LGA775 slot as well.
Note: The Core 2 Quads and Xeon Quadcores I have listed are only compatible if you have updated your bios to 2.3.2 or higher I recommend 2.4.0 as it is the latest bios update.
Next is RAM the only ram this system supports DDR2 SDRAM Dell will tell you this computer only supports up 4GB of ram at a max speed of 800MHz. This is wrong the bios will recognize 8GB of 800MHz ram as long as you have a 64bit OS the ram will be fully functional
Compatible GPUs
AMD Radeon HD 6450 (tested confirmed working)
AMD Radeon HD 7750 (confirmed by other user)
ASUS GeForce 210 Silent 1GB DDR3 (confirmed by RAART)
Galaxy GTX 750 ti 2GB DDR5 (low profile)
MSI N750ti-2GD5TLP GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB
More to come
Cooling and adding fans
Note: I use artic 5 silver thermal compound and temps were recorded on a Xeon x3230 CPU temps maybe slightly higher or lower than mine when useing other cpus.
You can add fans to this computer to make it run cooler alot of people who use this system have encountered heat problems most happens when they up grade to a quad core I know from experience when you upgrade to a quad core you will most likely get idle temps of 40-50 depending on what you put in the system but this can be cured by add a fan and mounting it to the heatsink in order to do this you need the following:
sata power male to sata female y splitter (so you have a cable to plug in to the hardrive still and one for the fans)
sata to molex adapter (and if your fans dont come with it a adpater to plug in your fans to molex)
40mm fan to mount to the back of the case by the PSU which gets supriseingly hot and with this little fan it actually helps a whole lot it will run much cooler.
60mmx10mm fan to mount to the heatsink puting this fan on can be a little tricky due to the blades often hitting the heat sink so it will need to be mounted cafefully toward the center of the heat sink it will slot right in but I recommend adding two screws to the top hole on the fan to keep it secure.
These are the fans I used:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835119055&cm_re=60mm_fan-_-35-119-055-_-Product
Useing just these fans brought my idle temps down to the mid 20s which is great for this system.
Geting a SSD improves temps as well If you move the ssd under the disc drive in the case and allowing the hardrive to run helps air circulate in the case especially if you have a graphics card installed in the case since the ssd I use never really runs hot to begin with.
Another good idea is changing with thermal compund on the northbridge which would help improve temps a little and reduce random stutters due to a over heating northbridge I used Artic 5 silver for mine its pretty easy to do just unclip the northbridge heatsink remove the thermal compound from the northbridge chip with a dry cloth (make sure you get most of it off the heatsink too) and apply your recommened thermal compound a tiny drop will do.
Trouble shooting windows 8 AHCI mode bios glitch
Okay so for people who will be wanting to activate AHCI and do a clean install of windows 8 there is a glitch in the bios I found that if you format the SSD to remove your old os to install windows 8 for some reason the bios with freeze up at the AHCI screen and will become completely in accessable you will not be able to go to the boot menu or enter bios setup at all however this can be fixed. Unplug the power from your computer and remove you SSD then boot up the computer without the SSD installed. Hit f2 repeatedly until it says entering set up you will be able to go past the AHCI screen and enter the bios setup set your bios back to ata mode then power off your computer and reinstall your SSD. Turn your compter back on and boot from the device you are installing windows 8 from. When windows 8 asks you for custom or upgrade pick custom and it will show you the SSD and you will find that the SSD has data on it from the previous windows 8 installation attempt delete all the partitions that the previous windows 8 made untill you are left with just unallocated space. (DO NOT INSTALL WINDOWS 8 RIGHT AFTER THIS) After you have deleted the partitions restart your computer and press f2 to get into the bios and renable AHCI mode. Then install windows 8 normally and it should be fine.
Questions if you have any please respond to this post and I will answer them ASAP.
My Current specs for The Dimension 9200c
Intel Xeon x3230 x4 2.67GHz processor
8GB DDR2 800MHz Dell certified RAM
Galaxy GTX 750 ti (low profile)
Samsung 840 EVO 250GB(AHCI enabled in bios)
Windows 8 professional
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram