Dell Dimension 2400

[mattknubis]

So I have an old dell dimension 2400 running windows XP professional versino 2002 service pack 3 with an Intel celeron CPU 2.40 GHz, 512 MB of Ram and 37.2GB hard drive I was going to upgrade the operating system to windows 8 just because I got a free copy. I need to upgrade the ram but Im not entirely sure on what sticks I should use Ive been doing some google research but it hasn't been going as smoothly as I had hoped. Along with upgrading the ram i was wondering if i would see much improvement in upgrading the hard drive I don't really need a lot of storage space so I don't know if it would be worth it. Any suggestions?
Thanks

 

[jay_nar2012]

http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Dell-memory/Dimension+%2F+Dimension+XPS/Dimension+2400+Series-upgrades.html

You should try upgrading the CPU as it needs more resources than XP.

http://ark.intel.com/products/27499/Intel-Pentium-4-Processor-supporting-HT-Technology-3_06-GHz-512K-Cache-533-MHz-FSB

This is the best CPU your board can take, the max amount of RAM is 2GB (1GB per slot), you can find these parts cheaper on EBay.

Alternatively you can save the copy of windows 8 for a more modern system.

 

[mattknubis]

So that CPU is the only one my board could handle so I wouldn't be able to upgrade to say an i3, granted it would probably just be easier to buy a whole new tower. I actually tried to upgrade it to windows 8 in hopes of speeding it up but found out it had very limited RAM. So if I would decide to upgrade it to windows 8 with the upgraded RAM would I see an increase in speed? Or would that simply be based on the internal components more so than the Operating System?

 

[jay_nar2012]

You would see a moderate performance improvement (will allow more programs to be opened smoothly, more responsive).

An i3 has a completely different socket, your chipset only supports PGA478 Netburst CPUs (first range of Celeron Ds and Pentium 4s), your BIOS supports other CPUs but that CPU is the best it supports, motherboard supports a maximum front bus speed of 533MHz, a i3 doesn't use a FSB.

Simply an i3 won't work in any in your current computer, you can buy a new motherboard with compatible RAM or buy a new PC.

 

[mattknubis]

That is kind of what I thought.

Any idea on the price of a new CPU that would be compatible? I tried checking on intels sight but couldn't find a price on the Pentium you suggested. If I upgrade the CPU would it be able to handle more RAM or is that again based on the motherboard?

 

[Proximon]

This topic has been moved from the section Forum Feedback to section Systems by Proximon