Upgrade Help

[Dr Dave 0]

Hi first Of all Im Dave and Im new around here like so many other unlucky souls Ive been dumped with A Dell Dimension 2350 Desktop. (It Was free So its ok)

 

Currently its carrying a

pentium 4 - 2.6 processor

512 ram

Intergrated graphics card

60 GB hard drive

CD-RW Rewriter

 

I want to upgrade the following

 

512 ram into 1024 ram

intergrated graphics into a card that that can play all the recent games well (far cry doom 3 etc etc)(Must be A PCI card though, thats the only slot)

60 GB Hard Drive into 120 gb hard drive

CDRW INTO CD/DVD RW

 

Ive got a 350 pound budget to do this.

 

Please Help.

 

[Dr Dave 0]

So far Ive found

 

A Gfx Card http://www.misco.co.uk/productinformation/~100429~/product.htm?affiliate=2024

 

512 RAM

http://www.crucial.com/uk/store/listpart...s&submit=Go

 

 

Both are guaranteed to work with my dell, have any people found a HD and a cd/dvd rw that will work with a dimension 2350 desktop ?

[Sampson 0]

Your plan is ambitious, but I hope that you can do without sleep for the next six months trying to get these bits to work with that computer. I am not saying that it cannot be done, but it is like trying to take a London cab and turning it into a hotrod.

 

First, Dell is a computer you order according to the use you will put it too. You have a perfectly sound computer for home/student use. That's what it was designed for. The main reason that many people have problems with Dells is because they do not order the computer that will run the software they really intend to use; they order one or two levels below what they need.

 

Second, Dell does use slightly tweaked hardware and software so that their performance generally exceeds a "comparable" system but to execute this, a lot of their components are proprietary, making expansion of their hardware comparable to the labors of Hercules. Ask your self why a system that has P4 2.6 GHz wouldn't have an AGP slot? Then, ask yourself if the power requirement to add a new video card, more memory, a bigger hard drive and DVD is going to be sustained by your existing PCU? Then, you have added heat, needing more fans? And, finally, do they have a BIOS that will support all this neat stuff?

 

If you decide to go through with this, here are some extra reservations to keep in mind - memory, if you order it, be sure that the company you get it from guarantees that it will work in a Dell.

 

If you are going to tackle the hard drive keep in mind that Dell's Bios is limited for one thing, and that their own hard drives have some kind of quirk in them and some extra hidden folders on them where they store things like their own utilities. If you choose not to remove their drive and want to add a second drive, be sure the PCU will be able to handle the extra power drain.

 

PCI cards are going to do only an adequate (if you like slow, few effects, and did I say slow?) job at playing games. Probably, most will tell you that the ATI's will give you the best overall result though these cards will only support DirectX 8. The Nvidia cards (like the FX5200) can support directX 9, but they are not really gaiming cards.

 

Finally, you should make very sure that the BIOS is available that will support a DVD for that machine.

 

I guess what I am saying is - you would do better to use the machine the way it was designed, save your money for a computer you really want, then sell or donate the Dell later - believe me, if you do what you want to do, you will be back in these forums wondering how you overcome the latest blue screen of death.