Assistance needed on freshening up a Dell

[Fire$torm]

Wow, thank you. I would feel strange taking freebies. Can the CPU (as I have never done it, only spectated) be swaped out as easy as RAM with zero adjustments from the fool at the keyboard?

As for that nVidia 9800, would it be more effective to run that single card, or grab three of the one's John suggested?

Swapping CPUs is slightly more involved then RAM. Mainly cleaning the Thermal Interface Material (TIM), aka CPU paste, off of the CPU and heatsink. That is easily done with Isopropyl alcohol and a clean lint free (Micro Fiber) cloth.

For applying new paste there are several schools of thought on this and is a huge ongoing debate on many techie forums but I won't bore you with it. Instead I'll point you to rational sources for some quick tutorials.

NCIX: Installing Thermal Compound (NCIX Tech Tips #11) Video

[H]ard|OCP: Thermal Paste Shootout - Q209 (pg. 3 - Applying the paste)

Note that the NCIX video demos two CPU coolers that are not used much anymore. If after looking at your system, you find it hard to figure out then take a pic and post it. Then I can find a youtube video (hopefully) that matches your cooler.

The 9800GT is an old GPU. A dinosaur in tech terms. I offered as an alternative to shelling out cash. But to answer your question, there of those 430s with totally smoke the 9800.

F$

PS. No reply yet to my first PM about helping you but I did find Three Pentium 4 CPUs in my collection. Two are Socket 478 so they will work with your current MB and the other is Socket 775. I also found a Socket 775 MB that has (x2) PCI slots and (x1) PCIe x16 slot. I was also able to dig up the 420 Watt PSU I mentioned before.

I forget to go through my RAM collection but I promise to do that tomorrow.

[John P. Myers]

I forget to go through my RAM collection but I promise to do that tomorrow.

One of his sticks of RAM is already a 1GB. 1 more and he'll be all set there

[Fire$torm]

One of his sticks of RAM is already a 1GB. 1 more and he'll be all set there

DOH.... I missed that.

[denim]

Swapping CPUs is slightly more involved then RAM. Mainly cleaning the Thermal Interface Material (TIM), aka CPU paste, off of the CPU and heatsink. That is easily done with Isopropyl alcohol and a clean lint free (Micro Fiber) cloth.

For applying new paste there are several schools of thought on this and is a huge ongoing debate on many techie forums but I won't bore you with it. Instead I'll point you to rational sources for some quick tutorials.

NCIX: Installing Thermal Compound (NCIX Tech Tips #11) Video

[H]ard|OCP: Thermal Paste Shootout - Q209 (pg. 3 - Applying the paste)

Note that the NCIX video demos two CPU coolers that are not used much anymore. If after looking at your system, you find it hard to figure out then take a pic and post it. Then I can find a youtube video (hopefully) that matches your cooler.

The 9800GT is an old GPU. A dinosaur in tech terms. I offered as an alternative to shelling out cash. But to answer your question, there of those 430s with totally smoke the 9800.

F$

PS. No reply yet to my first PM about helping you but I did find Three Pentium 4 CPUs in my collection. Two are Socket 478 so they will work with your current MB and the other is Socket 775. I also found a Socket 775 MB that has (x2) PCI slots and (x1) PCIe x16 slot. I was also able to dig up the 420 Watt PSU I mentioned before.

I forget to go through my RAM collection but I promise to do that tomorrow.

Thank you for the links. I will check them out as upgrading the CPU would be very nice, especially if it is a dual core. There is nothing wrong with the Celeron D in this box, it is just pretty pokey and seems to get loaded quickly.

GPU wise, would my machine allow me to grab a 430 or two and run your 9800 also?

I am sorry for so many questions, I am just rusty on the hardware side and over the last few years have become strictly an end user. No rush on the RAM, if you find something, that would be great if not no worries I can buy a stick if it is the best approach. Going up to 2GB would be nice, maybe attempt to run some Lattice on this box.

[Fire$torm]

Thank you for the links. I will check them out as upgrading the CPU would be very nice, especially if it is a dual core. There is nothing wrong with the Celeron D in this box, it is just pretty pokey and seems to get loaded quickly.

GPU wise, would my machine allow me to grab a 430 or two and run your 9800 also?

I am sorry for so many questions, I am just rusty on the hardware side and over the last few years have become strictly an end user. No rush on the RAM, if you find something, that would be great if not no worries I can buy a stick if it is the best approach. Going up to 2GB would be nice, maybe attempt to run some Lattice on this box.

No worries with the questions. I really do not mind.

For the CPUs, the AMD would need a different MB then the one you have now. Unfortunately I do not have a working MB for that AMD. The Pentium 4s I mentioned are all single core CPUs.

Your current system cannot use the 9800GT since it does not have a PCIe slot.

Now I do have a Socket-775 Micro-ATX MB that can use two of the Pentium CPUs I mention previously. Plus it has two PCI slots (that will accept the 430) and one PCIe slot that will accept the 9800GT.
If I can find a heatsink for this MB then you won't have to bother with installing the CPU as I can do the assembly before shipping. I would do it anyway to make sure the hardware still works.....

Now I think the AMD Athlon-64 x2 would be a better CPU then a single core Pentium. So I'm still looking and asking around.

F$

[Fire$torm]

Update:

I found a stick of Hynix PC3200U CL3 @1GB M/N: HYMD512646CP8J-D43AA. And for what it's worth, it has a Dell label on it.

[denim]

Update:

I found a stick of Hynix PC3200U CL3 @1GB M/N: HYMD512646CP8J-D43AA. And for what it's worth, it has a Dell label on it.

That's awesome. Can you shoot me a PM with your Paypal or mailing address and what you would like for the stick?

I might go ahead an grab one of the 430's to start.

[Fire$torm]

That's awesome. Can you shoot me a PM with your Paypal or mailing address and what you would like for the stick?

I might go ahead an grab one of the 430's to start.

No need for PayPal. The stick is yours just PM you addy so I can get it out to you.

As for the 9800GT I tested it today. The card works but the stock cooler sucks. It cannot keep the GPU cool. I down clocked the card to 300Mhz and even when the card is idle GPU temp is in 55C! Running FurMark on the card at a stock clock of 600Mhz temps hit 90C+ in less then 90 seconds. All this is after I cleaned the GPU chip and heatsink and applied new Arctic Silver 5. My guess is the cooler isn't making proper contact with the GPU.

Bottom line... I cannot recommend this card. maybe if at some point I can find a decent aftermarket cooler on the cheap...... but its not really worth it. Better to spend that cash on a better card.

F$

[denim]

No need for PayPal. The stick is yours just PM you addy so I can get it out to you.

As for the 9800GT I tested it today. The card works but the stock cooler sucks. It cannot keep the GPU cool. I down clocked the card to 300Mhz and even when the card is idle GPU temp is in 55C! Running FurMark on the card at a stock clock of 600Mhz temps hit 90C+ in less then 90 seconds. All this is after I cleaned the GPU chip and heatsink and applied new Arctic Silver 5. My guess is the cooler isn't making proper contact with the GPU.

Bottom line... I cannot recommend this card. maybe if at some point I can find a decent aftermarket cooler on the cheap...... but its not really worth it. Better to spend that cash on a better card.

F$

Thank you on the RAM! And thank you for taking the time and effort on that GPU.

GPU wise, would it be a massive drop off if I cheaped out a little and went with something like a 6200 instead of the 430? Or just suck it up and spend a few extra on the 430? Only asking because of the three slots the price difference is three times over. And should I assume a Power Supply upgrade is required to feed 3 stronger GPU's of this nature?

Edit: After reading a lot of the feedback and reviews, the 430 that John suggested sounds like the best one performance wise and is worth the money.

[Fire$torm]

Edit: After reading a lot of the feedback and reviews, the 430 that John suggested sounds like the best one performance wise and is worth the money.

Yeppers.