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My Upgrade Nightmare Continues

Darg

Darg

Darg

Soldato
Joined
6 Sep 2006
Posts
6,302
Location
London
This all started about a month ago. I had a Dell Dimension 8300, 3Ghz CPU, 9800Pro, 1GB PC400 DDR1 RAM. I decided to upgrade the graphics card and while I was at it I decided to get a new case for it that would have better cooling and a better PSU.

So I order the Titan 550W system and the 7600GT AGP gfx card along with a couple of additional system fans. They arrive in days from OCUK and I get to work dismantling my Dell box and getting my Titan ready. The first thing I noticed was that my Dell motherboard did not have the correct Power/USB plugs for the front of the titan case. Now this is bad but I can work it somehow. I decided that I can live with just taking the couple of PCBs out of the dell (smashy smashy) that was used for the power button and the two USB ports at the front. They had a special USB connection into the motherboard.

So after all this smashing and fixing I took the motherboard and finally placed it into the Titan case. The damn screw holes are in the wrong place and the ports at the back aren't in the ATX positions. wtf? Dell use some weird hybrid of mATX and ATX for their motherboards. I was screwed over. I was really really really ****** at this stage. I'd spent the last 2 or 3 hours trying to get it to work and then the goddamn motherboard wouldn't fit.

This was after I'd gone out the day before to buy a couple of cable converters for the two extra fans and a CPU cooler. (Akasa cooler for 775, probably not that great but will do). Now I had to resign myself to putting my dell box back together. The front is kind messed up at the moment but atleast I could attach that cooler. But of course the screw holes for that are in the wrong place too! So back to the ***** 305W PSU and ducted air supply to the CPU.

First thing I did was go on the net and find myself an ATX mobo that supports everything I need. I found it in the Asrock 775 DUAL-VSTA mobo. It also has 4 PCI slots and a PCI-E slot for when I upgrade to DX10 cards next year. And it supports my DDR1 memory so everything is great.

Until today.. I ran CPU-Z more out of boredom then anything else and noticed that for some reason it said my CPU was a 478 Prescott. Noo.. it must be wrong. The dell website told me that it was a 775 pin P4. Didn't it?? Handily enough CPU-Z froze my computer so I had to turn it off anyway. I opened the case, took out the CPU and counted the pins. God damn it to all the big bad words out there. I'm sad to say my cat bore the brunt of my anger when she nosed a bit too close to the inside of my computer for liking. I almost threw the damn CPU chip across the room. It looks like I'm stuck in the dell box for a while longer.

My motherboard is due to arrive on Tuesday and my damn CPU won't fit. I'm thinking that if I order a CPU first chance I get (tomorrow night) then it will be here by wednesday and then maybe, finally, I might get out of this god damn Dell piece of urgh..

The moral of this story is:

You get what you pay for. Dell will rip you off.

So instead of a nice new graphics card I will now have a nice new graphics card, motherboard and CPU. I was planning on leaving those until next year. Oh yes. I now have no money left either. Time to get another job.

Should I get a E6300 or is the extra L2 cache worth the money for the E6600?

EDIT: The tech specs for my dell. That's the most detailed specs I can find. Doesn't tell you what type of CPU it is. Don't know why I assumed it was 775.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim8300/sm/specs.htm#1102139

No swearing! FF.
 
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Well I could afford the extra €140 but is it worth it?

Also what kind of speed boost should I be looking at CPU wise between my current 478 Prescott 3Ghz and a (hopefully overclocked to 300mhz FSB) E6300?
 
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Did you ever make a thread about potentially doing this?

If you did I'm sorry I didn't see it. That's because I once owned the Dimension 8300. It is indeed an odd form factor for this system. The 8300 chassis was always proprietory form factor while the 4600's and 2400's used the mATX form factor. That was their product line around 2003/2004. Currently they use a BTX form factor.

For the record the Dimension 8300 used the 875P chipset and Socket 478 CPU's up to 3.4GHz.
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As for trying to recover some of your money. Your existing CPU should sell quite easily around the £45 mark or around £55 to £60 on auction sites.
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Alternatively, you could return the motherboard, buy a used Pentium 4 Socket 478 motherboard on mATX or ATX form factor and get away without having to spend much at all.

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As for your question regarding the E6300, it should perform noticeably better at stock speeds, and even quicker when clocked. The Asrock board will limit your clocking efforts to around 290 to 300FSB which is around the 2.1GHz mark. Not too bad never the less. It should make a difference.

Mul
 
No I didn't I just assumed that dell used standard boards.

Thanks for the help. I am going to buy the E6300. Pity though as if I knew that I would be buying a new board, CPU and gfx card at the same time I would probably have gotten a better quality PCI-e card then the 7600GT(AGP) for the same money. Ah well. Next time I will upgrade mobo/memory and gfx card at the same time. Hopefully the E6300 will be adequate for quite a while to come.
 
Lol bushy.. I was working as a programmer during the summer. Database and .NET, boring.

The Asrock board can take DDR1 or DDR2 memory. One of the reasons I picked it. That and the 4 PCI slots, 2 IDE slots, SATA for when I upgrade my harddrives and the AGP and PCI-e slots. It's gotten some nice reviews.
 
I gave my 8300 to my dad. He uses it happily for photoediting.

8300 has the worst case cooling.
8300 sounds like a vacum cleaner while playing games.
BIOS is really limited.
No fan headers.
Rubbish PSU with single fan.
Non-standard MB as you mentioned.
I had a DVD-Drive and HD failure within 2 years.

Dell make good word-processors.
 
Well damn them. Atleast I get the RAM out of it and I might be able to sell the p4 and 9800Pro over the net. Don't think anybody will want a 305W PSU.

I had my DVD drive die after about a year and a half but luckily I still had the working DVD-RW drive. That is making one hell of a whiny racket now though since I have the case on its side as several things would fall out if I tried to stand it up right now :rolleyes:

The MB basically has no useful headers. Only what was needed for the front board that comes with it and even they aren't spec.

Still in a toss up between a 6300 or something better seeing as I won't be able to clock it very well with the Asrock board. Might get 2.1 out of it at best. Hopefully Asrock will release a BIOS that will let you change the multipliers.
 
NathanE said:
Dell's can never be moved to other cases or use non-Dell PSUs. Technically they are non-upgradable.
Click to expand...

Same with Time, and the other rip off crew, they basically ensure that once you buy something about the only thing you can upgrade is the memory!!! I think their aim is to ensure that next to nothing of theirs can be re-used.
 
When I started to build my system I could not sell off the parts from my old pc it is a 2.4 pentium 4 I had to give it to my daughters for there bedroom so its costing a fortune + I have made a few mistakes 2 m/b and instead of buying a conroe chip first I bought a pentium 4 3.0 ghx ht cpu ( now this is an idiot lol )..
Wayne... :(
 
Darg said:
No I didn't I just assumed that dell used standard boards.
Click to expand...
I have to pity the 'Dells' of this world. Their aim in life is to sell IT products to the world. They have to provide support for the life of their products. But we all know how fast Gigabyte, MSI and Asus etc replace their motherboards, the product life is less than a year.

So Dell have their motherboards specially made for them, along with the cases and PSU's. If one goes faulty Dell can supply a replacement, and not just for the first 12 months, after all they offer 3 year service agreements. It doesn't matter to them that the parts won't fit in someone else's case and wont connect to someone else's PSU.

Don't feel ripped off by Dell, you never asked them if you would be able to upgrade the case or transfer the chip to another motherboard, they sold you a computer and it was still working to the spec it had when you bought it.

Now you'll have built your own PC you will learn all about computer support! Hopefully you will learn a lot more about the PC and get more out of it, but if you use it as an appliance, not a hobby, it's a very diferent thing.
 
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