Upgrades for REALLY OLD Dell Dimension 4300S

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ds1495

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Hi, so I have this Dell Dimension 4300S (yes, I know, its really crappy and really old) :P I would really like to be able to play some games (nothing intense, just maybe something newer that 1999 ;))

So, I was wondering what kind of upgrades would be possible on this PC?

The current specs are:

CPU- Intel Pentium 4 @1.4ghz
GPU- ATI Rage 128 PRO w/16 mb vram :(
RAM- 512 mb
HDD- 120 GB (I think)

Would I be able to upgrade the CPU, RAM, maybe video card? (Please don't give me this answer: WOW!!! Just go and buy a new compute already!!! This one sucks!! :eek: ;)

Thanks in advance,
Dylan
 
I have an old dimension too and I've done some upgrades, this is the number one thing to upgrade, and here is the cheapest I have seen...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130292878817&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

(1GB RAM is the max for that computer)

After that I would suggest upgrading the graphics card if you do not have one with a DVI port (I think the 128 Pro does support DVI but whatever it still sucks and a much better one is very cheap 20-30 dollars on ebay for a 256MB with high def resolutions and DVI). After that you will need a high def widescreen monitor (more expensive but worth it).

These three things (ram, graphics card, monitor) in my opinion are by far the most important upgrades to make. After doing them the dimension won't be all that bad. SDRAM sucks but there is nothing you can do about it.

After those three I would say maybe put a new higher RPM hard drive in it (but you should check compatibility first - I haven't looked into HDDs at all for my computer). But a new hard drive with more cache and higher RPM operation would definitely improve performance.

BY THE WAY WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET??? IT MUST BE LOW BECAUSE YOU COULD BY AN ENTIRE COMPUTER THAT IS TWICE AS GOOD AS YOURS FOR ABOUT 300 BUCKS...LOL

It would be pointless trying to upgrade the motherboard and processor because of what I said above - if you were going to spend the time and money to do that there is no reason to not just buy a newer computer for a couple hundred (or even cheaper for just a CPU with no accessories or monitor).
 
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Well I am going to say it you do need a new computer probably not what you wont to hear but sorry it true.

How much do you have to spend for everything and what country are you in.

To upgrade your computer you would first have to upgrade the Case why because you need a new power supply and modern hardware won't fit in to an old case like that. After a case and power supply you need a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Soon after that you will need a graphics card and then probably a new hard drive.

sorry but on old computers like that when you upgrade one thing you pretty much have to upgrade them all. Besides it only cost around $400 to build a quality low end gaming computer.
 
1. Anything newer for a video card, your going to need a pci-e slot or you will pay a huge premium for an older AGP card.
2. Any pci-express motherboard wont support that cpu
3. That CPU would bottleneck pretty much any video card
4. Dell uses low end power supplies, plus something of that age would still have the proprietary power supply


Could keep going, but the truth be told, its probably about time to build yourself a new computer. Much more cost effective than trying to upgrade an ancient system.
 
A 256MB AGP graphics card is less than 30 bucks on ebay (just like I said). Power requirement is only 250W, he should have no trouble putting that in his computer and it would be a HUGE upgrade over what he has. I'm not claiming he would be able to play Fallout 3 at 1080p on his Dell Dimension but it would definitely make it a lot better than it is now especially after installing that 1GB RAM. I don't know about him but I don't use my computer much (I use my 320GB PS3 with Linux for just about everything) so my dimension is just fine for what I use it for. Maybe he doesn't have 400 dollars to drop, or maybe he just doesn't want to drop 400 on a computer.
 
gillmanjr said:
A 256MB AGP graphics card is less than 30 bucks on ebay (just like I said). Power requirement is only 250W, he should have no trouble putting that in his computer and it would be a HUGE upgrade over what he has. I'm not claiming he would be able to play Fallout 3 at 1080p on his Dell Dimension but it would definitely make it a lot better than it is now especially after installing that 1GB RAM. I don't know about him but I don't use my computer much (I use my 320GB PS3 with Linux for just about everything) so my dimension is just fine for what I use it for. Maybe he doesn't have 400 dollars to drop, or maybe he just doesn't want to drop 400 on a computer.
Click to expand...

Agp cards for $30 would at best be maybe a 7300 which is a pretty crap card, and with that slow of a cpu its useless. "upgrading" something of this age is pretty much wasted money.
 
The problem he will be having is thats an old system, and that the max graphics card he could probably put in there is 128mb if that. I had the 4550 and it could only have a 128mb max because of motherboard limitations not because of power supply limitations. I would save money up for a new build myself, don't waste money on a old machine that you won't be happy with.
 
I know this is an OLD thread, but for anyone who happens to be searching for info; Not sure what mobos will fit as this is proprietary Dell stuff. It does not bolt in the way regular generic mobos do. And it has a different power supply setup from what I've been able to discover. It is the standard 20 pin, but the pinouts are not atx standard. Note that this was written 7/15 so prices may change but the prices I give are good as of this writing.

That said, you can do quite a bit with this machine. A 3.0GHz P4 is available (though it will run you $40 whereas the 2.8GHz will be $10-$15). Look for a Northwood P4 with 400MHz FSB. The 2.8 is an SL7EY. These top end Northwood P4s will also have more cache, nothing to shout about in terms of modern stuff, but every little bit helps. These will come with 512k cahce. Yes 1GB of pc133 is the max for this board. Expect to pay about $10 for the two 512MB ram sticks.

But there is still more you can do to bring this up to more modern standards.

You can add a PCI gigbit network card to speed up internet access. Expect to pay around $5-$10 for this. The original is a 10/100 so the 10/100/1000 gigabit card will really make a difference.

You can add a cheap SIL3114 or SIL3124 PCI SATA/RAID card and get SATA I (3114) or even SATA II (3124, though not sure how much faster SATA II would actually be on a PCI bus). That will let you add an SSD, which will at least double your drive speed even at "just" SATA I. And although TRIM will not work with these SIL cards, the SSD will be so fast that even without trim, it will max out the PCI bus. The best SSDs will have one of the good Sandforce controllers, that have better garbage collection. The 3114 should run less than $10 and the 3124 about $15. A good used SSD should be around $30 for between 60 and 120 GB. I got an Enterprise class brand new Cloudspeed 500 120GB for $35. This has great speed (in fact way more than this system will ever be able to tap) but it also has 3x the longevity of consumer SSDs and has power failure protection with on-board caps to ensure the cache is written to nand in the event of power loss.

Lastly the graphics card is where you can make a big difference. The original card is a joke. Even some of the "upgrades" will bench so bad you can't believe it. But you can get relatively cheap 512MB cards that will work with this system. Avoid the Geforce options like the Geforce 6200. Unless you are going to stick with XP, the Vista/Win 7 drivers for these are AFU. They seem to only properly support the PCI-e versions and not the AGP versions. The best option is probably an ATI Radeon HD 3450. I know the PowerColor Radeon HD3450 512MB card works great in this board and the drivers are good with Win 7. Expect to pay about $20-$25 for the Radeon HD 3450 w/512MB. I just got one brand new in the box, for that. This card does need a Molex 4 pin power connection, BTW.

So what does all this get you? Well the Windows Experience Index is not a great benchmark, but it will give you some idea of the results. So here is mine;

Processor (2.8GHz) ----------3.8
Memory (1GB pc133) ---------3.8
Desktop Graphics (HD3450) --3.4
Gaming Graphics (HD3450)---5.4
Primary Hard Drive (SSD) -----6.5 (this is limited by the PCI bus not the SSD)

Most will not have Win 7 on their 4300, so they may not have anything to compare this to. Before these changes, most of the scores on my 4300 with Win 7 were below 2 and a number of them were so low they could not be scored so they got a 1. So there are some *significant* improvements here.

Obviously this will never be a barn burner, but for under $100 you can make this a useable machine. Just don't expect to be running a handful of apps at the same time. My 4300 is about as fast as my older Core2Duo laptop. In some ways is it actually faster, (when disk access is significant), and in some ways it is a bit slower (when ram and CPU are significant). The nice thing is that with the swap file on the SSD, that has a lot less of an effect on speed. Between that and the 1GB, the memory based slowdowns are a lot less troublesome.

And yes this all runs off the stock PSU and does just fine. I had to get some Molex/SATA adapters for the SSD and the extra HD I added (I set this up with a 160GB IDE HD, a 160GB SATA HD and the 120GB SSD, plus an IDE DVD-RW and an IDE CD-R), and I had to get some Molex splitters. But in the end, the PSU was still able to handle everything, even when stress tested with OCCT.
 
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Well written Marc, but utterly useless considering the age of the components. :P

Welcome to the forums by the way!
 
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A cheap AGP card would be a large upgrade for 3d. You can get something like a 9600XT or similar off of eBay for $20 or less shipped. Not sure why everyone is hung on VRAM quantity.

Also, some more RAM would help out immensely.

Even though you don't want to hear it, it'd be more cost effective to ditch that platform. By the time you spent cash on upgrades you could have more effectively used your money on something better. The 4300s came out nearly 15 years ago, man.
 
ds1495 said:
Hi, so I have this Dell Dimension 4300S (yes, I know, its really crappy and really old) :P I would really like to be able to play some games (nothing intense, just maybe something newer that 1999 ;))

So, I was wondering what kind of upgrades would be possible on this PC?

The current specs are:

CPU- Intel Pentium 4 @1.4ghz
GPU- ATI Rage 128 PRO w/16 mb vram :(
RAM- 512 mb
HDD- 120 GB (I think)

Would I be able to upgrade the CPU, RAM, maybe video card? (Please don't give me this answer: WOW!!! Just go and buy a new compute already!!! This one sucks!! :eek: ;)

Thanks in advance,
Dylan
Click to expand...

Man you PC specs barely makes it with lots of buffering and freezing on regular streaming from the web,serious gaming is out of the question,
i have a Dell 4500 P4 and all i can do on it is browsing the web, and it's P4 2.00 GHZ cpu 2GB mem also i have to use Xubuntu 14.04 and win XP
 
I have an old Dell laptop with a Pentium 4. It had 128 MB of RAM so I added 512 MB so that I could use a modern browser. Found out some sites would take forever to render and Ccleaner (I think it was) crashed the computer. Pentium 4's are just way too old! A damn netbook would out perform it.

I had a DEll Dimension 4600 that I upgraded everything but the motherboard. Went from a 2.4 GHZ CPU to 3.0 GHZ, 9800 GT, FSP PSU, sound card, DVD/RW and SATA 1 HDDs. LOL!

I wasn't sure what CPU would be compatible so I went to Dell's forum.
 
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