I have a Dell Dimension 4700 with a P4 520 (2.8GHz) processor. My fiancee also has a Dell 5150 with a P4 630 (3.0GHz). My PC has already been upgraded, with more memory, anothe 250GB HD, and a DVD+RW drive. My fiancee is planning to sell (basicall give) her PC to her sister, so I was wondering if I could actually swap out my 520 P4, for her 630 P4 for my 4700.

Both seem to have the same FSB, socket & voltage specs, so is going from the 2.8GHz to 3.0GHZ and the additional 1MB of L2 Cache worth it (since it's free)? Would it work?

Been searching Dells web site, and no luck on finding out.

I just searched Dell forums, b/c this is an interesting question. Since the P4 630 is just a Prescott with double the L2 cache and 64bit extensions, there stands a good chance of it working in your motherboard. I know the 65nm P4 6x1 chips will not work. From my research, I have found one person who claimed to test the 630 in his 4700 with success. I think since you have the 630 CPU at your disposal, it should be worth the effort to attempt the swap, and see if you have any luck.

Thanx joefriday, that's what I was thinking as well. Give it a try. I did see there's been quite a few bios updates since my A05 version (now up to A10), and updated processor support is listed, except no list of WHICH processors.

Well, I gave it a try last night, and yes it does work. I did flash the A10 bios prior to swapping the processors. A little extra speed always helps. Maybe I can now hold off on a new PC until after the wedding now ;> )

Good to hear it worked out!

Sweet! congrats man!

Now, if I could only get a cheap sckt. 478 northwood 3.06ghz for my dimension 4550. would that make a significant speed boost from the same cpu, but running at 2.4ghz?

Instead of hunting for the Holy Grail 3.06 HT Northwood CPU, have you considered simply upgrading the mobo & tray in your 4550 to a mobo/tray combo from an 8300? Then you get 4 DDR rams slots w/dual channel, AGP 8x, 800 fsb, and Prescott support.

Wouldn't that require more $$ in buying a new mobo and cpu than just a 3.06ghz cpu?
it is just an idea anyways.

Well, 3.06GHz Northys are pretty expensive. Last I checked they were going for over $200, but things might have changed for the better since then.

Well, in that case I'm better off spending money to replace the ancient CRT monitor from '97. Man, i can't believe I use to game on that monitor..
(I keep waiting and hoping for it to die, so my parents can buy a new one.)

fyi magnets do bad things to a crt

OHHHH. THANK YOU SOOOMUCH! we shall see if this dinosaur can withstand cow magnets. who knows?

I have a really basic question and was hoping to get some help. I recently upgraded my old Dimension 2300 a little (250 G hard drive and adding 512 more megs of RAM) but the processor is still the old 1.8 ghz and I'm wondering if I can upgrade more. The specs on the computer say I can do a total of 1024 MGbs of RAM but what about the processor?
Is it difficult to upgrade that? Would I need to replace the motherboard? Where can I find the fastest processor that will still work in my PC?
i_charus@msn.com... Thanks everyone for your help!

Your best bet would proabably be some form of Pentium 4 processor below 2.4ghz. You will be paying quite the $$ amount for that upgrade and it would be useless to waste the money on technology that is that old for little gain. Save your money up and spend it on a new computer.The processor is likely to be a socket 478, and your max cpu would be around 2.4ghz and negligable in performance.