um guys lets not forget the ram. DDR will not work.
James
i would definitely get a new psu and case though. Ill ask again: are you planning to OC or not? If yes, get an e4300 and DS3, if no, get an e6600 and any decent mobo.
Keep your ram, it should work fine, and 3gigs is great.
Yeah i have DDR and PCIe already, I'm not planning to overclock because I think I will mess it up, and I really don't like loud fans or the water cooled method. I'm not looking to spend a lot, I just figured it's time to upgrade to something more efficient. BTW, my service tag is FPNDG81 so if would like to look up my complete specs, it's up on Dell's website.
Also, Rugger said just upgrade the CPU and I should be fine for today's games, are we all agree that it's a good idea? I'm not up to date with today's gaming specs/requirements, so I don't know what to shoot for.
Thanks for your help.
i think that all will agree that to make your pc better at gaming is NOT to upgrade the cpu (pentium 4/Core 2 Duo e6600), but to upgrade the gpu (Graphics Card/video Card/ATI X600/ Nvidia7900GS). Your CPU is fine for gaming, I have a similar one. Earlier this week I upgraded my graphics card to a 7600GT and saw excellent increases in performance. My PSU (Power Supply) though, like yours is pretty weak and cannot power high end graphics cards.
Your XPS Gen 3 and his 9100 are almost completely different. the 9xxx series, as you know, is BTX, but uses a standard ATX style PSU. It can be replaced by any number of aftermarket PSUs, but there really shouldn't be any need for that; the 305 watt unit should have enough headroom left for a fairly significant GPU upgrade.
Pics??? I need pics showing a dell 9100 with a standard ATX psu. I havent seen anything remotely standard in a dell... ever. My PSU is painfully proprietary like my mobo which has no integrated video, or sound, and has 6?? expansion slots.
I would NOT upgrade the GPU on that psu. I tried upgrading to a 7900gs on my 460w dual 17a PSU and my pc died. im now using a GF7600gt which relies on the PCI Express Slot for power.