[DELL] upgrading dimension 9100 mobo

[madyicstik]

hello, this will be my first post at this forum so please pardon my ignorance.

i was able to acquire a dell dimension 9100 the board on it is busted so i decided to buy a board. i bought a btx mobo on ebay which is intel d955xcs socket 775 1066fsb, im pretty sure that the power supply, memory, optical drives, and graphics card and processor still works. i know that the board wont fit perfectly on the case so i would have to take out on of the drive bay at the bottom and do a little modding for the i/o ports. i know i can buy an atx board and and case for cheap, but i want the challenge. i have a 1.5 tb hard drive sata( cant remember the brand i think its maxtor) ..

i guess my question is
on the mother board that i bought off ebay, what is the maximum processor that i can use? can it run core 2 duo or faster?or im stuck with the processor that came with the dimension 9100?

will this board and psu be able to handle the 1.5tb hdd?

whats a good graphics card for this specific set up? im planning on using this pc on gaming and home media center as well.

Thanks, your reply would be very much appreciated

 

[madyicstik]

bump

 

[aford10]

Here is a link the the CPU support list. These have been tested and will work.
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d955xcs/sb/CS-026571.htm

Update the BIOS, and the latest SP and it should recognize the entire hard drive. Here's the newest BIOS download.
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=12688&ProdId=2071&lang=eng

It's got a PCIe x16 slot, so you can use any of the newer graphics cards. The PSU will play a role in what graphics cards you can use.

 

[madyicstik]

Thank you for your reply... i did some reading and there are dual core cpu that runs on socket 775... since d955xcs board is a 775 socket will it work? the dual core cpu is not listed on the link.... also ive read that the d955xcs is compatible with ati crossfire... i have 2 ati x1300 graphics card and i was thinking of setting this up... i have all the components and parts.. honestly th only part that i bought is the mobo. thanks your replies would be very much appreciated.

 

[aford10]

Yes, dual cores do use the 775 socket. However, not all 775 sockets will support CPUs of the same socket type. A BIOS flash may recognize some newer CPUs, but I didn't see any claims of that.

Yes, it's crossfire capable.

 

[madyicstik]

do you think two(2) ati x1300 will work? if yes can you tell me what to download to enable it? sorry if i ask to many questions. thanks

 

[aford10]

They should work fine. You should have an option in the catalyst control center, to enable crossfire. It will look similar to this.
http://www.pcshoptalk.com/staff/stefan_m/4890c/Snap3.jpg