Dimension 5000 questions (not run of the mill variety)

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I will be taking possession of one of these little hotties tomorrow or the
day after, and I was wondering if anyone's tried to stick a pentium4
600-series processor in one of 'em, and if so, if it worked or not. Dell
doesn't seem to be able to answer that question.

Also, I'm wondering how big a video card people have put in one of these,
seeing as there is no PCIe power connector coming from the PSU, and the PSU
itself is 'only' 305 watts total capacity. Now, considering all the stuff
I've packed into my current Dimension 8100, I figure there's some margin to
that figure (8100 has 250W PSU), but it would still be cool to hear if
someone's experimented.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

"Lenny" <you@wish.haha> wrote in message news:ROJZd.19742$d5.149053@newsb.telia.net...
>I will be taking possession of one of these little hotties tomorrow or the
> day after, and I was wondering if anyone's tried to stick a pentium4
> 600-series processor in one of 'em, and if so, if it worked or not. Dell
> doesn't seem to be able to answer that question.

No first-hand experience to share with you, sorry. But I have come
across a half dozen success stories of people replacing a 5xx with a
6xx in their 925x or 915x based NON-dell motherboard. The only
issue I recall hearing about was the need to have the appropriate BIOS
version flashed before installing the 6xx. So maybe that is the only
question. IIRC, Intel announced availability of the 6xx on 2/21/05,
and there are 8400, 4700, and 5000 BIOS updates with that release
date. Maybe it is just a coincidence, maybe not.

ATM, over here, buying an 8400 is more cost effective than buying a
4700 and adding an equivalent 6xx.

> Also, I'm wondering how big a video card people have put in one of these,
> seeing as there is no PCIe power connector coming from the PSU,

FWIW, there are molex to PCIe power adapters, but...

> and
> the PSU itself is 'only' 305 watts total capacity. Now, considering all the
> stuff I've packed into my current Dimension 8100, I figure there's some
> margin to that figure (8100 has 250W PSU), but it would still be cool to
> hear if someone's experimented.

there is that potential issue. I think I saw that Dell offers a version of the
6800 with the 5000. So whatever that draws (?) should be fine. In the
(US) Dell Forums I haven't seen much about 5000 video card upgrades,
but there are quite a few messages about 4700 upgrades. Seems like
many people ran into problems, at least there for awhile, but IIRC I did
see something encouraging wrt 6800GT, X800 SE, and possibly the
X800 XT. You might check for yourself.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

> No first-hand experience to share with you, sorry. But I have come
> across a half dozen success stories of people replacing a 5xx with a
> 6xx in their 925x or 915x based NON-dell motherboard.

Yeah, that's the deal-breaker really, because Dell completely picks and
chooses what it wants to support in their systems. Like, they sell you a
computer with WinME pre-installed in it. You replace that steaming pile of
dung with XP, and the support person you call up when something (unrelated)
goes wrong is like, "Nope, sorry... Can't help you there."

If 6xx-series support comes for free with the bioses they get
from...wherever (I think the 8100 has a Phoenix bios) and they can't be
bothered to chop it out because it would be too much effort, then I guess
it'd work in my box too. But if they've decided to be annoying and only want
the box to run the 5xx series of processors, then I guess that's it, unless
there's an enthusiast community out there for Dell computers that I've never
heard of. :-D

I tried to google and see if there is such a site. Doesn't seem to exist one
single Dell-centric website in this quadrant of the galaxy at least. Dunno
'bout somewhere beyond Borg space, perhaps something could be found there...

> FWIW, there are molex to PCIe power adapters, but...

Yeah, I know, but that doesn't really make the power supply any more
powerful. :-D

> I think I saw that Dell offers a version of the
> 6800 with the 5000. So whatever that draws (?) should be fine.

The plain-jane 6800 (which is what they're offering and what I'm getting) is
from what I've been told one of the most frugal of the higher-ended chips.
It doesn't even have a PCIe power connector on it. Considering I run two
7200RPM harddrives, 2 DVDRWs, all PCI slots full, Radeon 9800Pro, ton of USB
devices, extra cardbay fan etc etc on this poor 8100's 250W power supply
with no problems whatsoever I expect Dell is rather conservative in the
ratings for their hardware. Hopefully at least the equivalent of a 6800GT
will be possible.

Anyway, thanks for your help, it's much appreciated.