Been given a Dell...which bits to use?

Master Skooter

Master Skooter

Master Skooter

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Hiya

I've been given a Dell 9200 from a previous employer.

The spec (from Dell site):

- CORE2 CPU 6600 @ 2.4 (1066MHz FSB, 4MB L2 CACHE)
- MEMORY DUAL CHANNEL 2048MB (2X1024) 533M
- HARD DRIVE 320 GB SERIAL ATA (7200 RPM)
- DVD+/-RW (READ/WRITE) 16X
- GRAPHICS CARD SINGLE 256MB NVDIA GEFORCE 7900GS
- AUDIO INTEGRATED HDA 7.1 DOLBY DIGITAL C
- Dell (Intel?) E210882 board
- Dell 375W PSU
- Dell screwless case

I'm not too clued up on hardware, so hoping somebody might be able to offer some advice please. My current PC isn't fantastic, but I'd like to think that the quality of some of the components are better than the stuff in the Dell.

My current PC:

- Intel E4400 Socket 775 2x2.00GHz 800MHz FSB 2MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor @ 2.7 (Standard cooler)
- ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA PT880 Ultra Socket 775 SATA 8 channel audio ATX
- Sapphire ATI X1950XT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO dual DVI PCI-E Crossfire ready
- Crucial Ballistix 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300 CL3 2.1 V unbuffered non-ECC
- Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200.8
- Pioneer DVR-112 DVD-RW
- Antec screwless case
- Tagan 480W PSU.

Would the best thing to do be put the 6600 in my current rig? Would it run using the 4400's stock Intel cooler? Would the 4400 run in the Dell board? (So that I'd have two working PCs).

The only downside to using the ASRock board is that the PCI-E slot is 4x and not 16x as the Dell is.

Or should I put my X1950XT into the Dell for now and order a new board with a true 16x PCI-E?

If anyone can help that would be great, cheers.
 
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Yeah id certainly swap the cpus out. Should be fine on stock cooler.

Id keep your X1950 as id say its quicker than the 7900GS. You could also maybe use the memory and then youd have 4Gb but you have to run at the slower timings of the dells memory slowing your ballistix down. But id say 4Gb of slower ram is better than 2gb of faster ram.

Other than that you could always use the hard drive as a data drive in your system.

Any idea what motherboard it has?
 
Thanks for replying matey.

Do you think that I should I be able to clock the 6600 to at least match my 4400's 2.7 with the stock cooler?

I've been trying to Google for a bit more info, it possibly uses the Intel P965 Express Chipset??

I'll probably leave the RAM in the Dell so one of my kids can use it. I also have an X1800XT 512MB that I was given that I might pop in there, I'm guessing that it should run games better than the 7900GS?

Would it be worth upgrading to my board to make full use of the X1950XT's 16x PCI-E?
 
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Yeah the X1800XT will be better than the 7900GS, the 6600 default speed is 2.4Ghz, and 3Ghz shouldnt be a problem even on your asrock board.

Download and run CPU-Z and it will tell you what mobo / chipset the dell pc has
 
Deffo a 965 chipset then, is a full size atx or micro atx board and are there any overclocking options in the BIOS?
 
Blimey, I wish I got a PC like that from my employer! You should think yourself lucky ;)

I would leave the dell as it is and just upgrade your current motherboard and cpu!
 
MeatLoaf said:
Deffo a 965 chipset then, is a full size atx or micro atx board and are there any overclocking options in the BIOS?
Click to expand...

Looks like a micro board, all settings in BIOS are locked.

fobose said:
Blimey, I wish I got a PC like that from my employer! You should think yourself lucky ;)

I would leave the dell as it is and just upgrade your current motherboard and cpu!
Click to expand...

The company developed video games :)

I'll upgrade the board when i have the pennies, but if the CPU will give me a nice boost I'll swap them over for now.
 
With Christmas nearing, might have to leave the board upgrade for now.

Surely if I can get the CPU running @ 3.0 in my ASRock, with the faster RAM the only negative would be the speed restriction of the PCI-E slot?

Would the faster CPU/RAM out weigh this when playing games? Or would I be better off installing the X1950XT in the Dell and running it at stock speeds?
 
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