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[JezInBrum]

Hello, after a bit of advice really.
I have a Dell Dimension5150 & was looking to upgrade the graphics card as mine will not run the latest games. Its Radeon x600 256mb. I have been hunting about & am seriously considering an nvidia 9800 gtx. Different type of card but both are PCI express.
Anyway forst problem encountered was that my DelL PSU is not updo an upgrade due to only being rated to 305watts & it also does not have a spare 6 pin lead for the seperate feed required to the card.
After some serious consideration I have decided to uprate the PSU shove in some xtra ram & change the Case.
Is ther anything to look out for when doing this? its not a mini tower, so should my motherboard be simple enough to swap over.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thanks Jez

[Xplicit 2.0]

whats the mobo and PSU?

[V6 Gix]

What's the CPU speed? How much RAM do you plan to install?

There are so many factors to consider when upgrading, but if you could give as much info as you can mate, that would really help.

Cheers

[cem_devecioglu]

Take your system to a parts selling shop and try there..Will be more easy and keep you away from later headaches..

[JezInBrum]

3.4ghz p4 intel. The psu & mobo are both Dell. Currently 1gb ram, upgrading to 4 with 2x2gb OCZ DDR2 800mhz Sticks. PSU will be 800w with loads of leads, the intention of not being caught out again when it comes to basic upgrades.
Still shopping about for the graphics card but this one is at the top of the list so far http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160819/show_product_overview

[Plomien]

check out http://www.scan.co.uk some of there bits are good so is http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/  

[TheBoy]

STOP!

You cannot change the case on this system, as its BTX (a great idea that sadly never caught on, and with the advent on lower power CPUs and components, no longer required).

[V6 Gix]

What sort of budget are you looking at Jez?

Sometimes it's worth forgetting upgrading an old PC and just go out and buy a new one. You can pick up some really good dual core PCs for around 300-400 quid these days.

Saw a quad core PC for sale in Tescos with 1Tb of drive space and 2Gb RAM the other day on offer for £299. Unreal price.

I would hazard a guess that your old P4 is creaking a bit now, so it might be worth having a think about getting a new one.

I've just upgraded from a P4 3.6 to a dual core 3.16 - the speed difference is very noticeable.

[Xplicit 2.0]

yeh i wud probs say ur (I'm just lazy, can't be bothered to type 'you are') better off buying a new one... come to think, a friend of mine owns his on web designs and pc repair business... he can and has find some real nice deals on both duel and quad cores... heres the link to his site if u wanna get in touch (i will put in a good word for u, jus mention my name)  

http://www.xwebdesigns.co.uk

[TheBoy]

yeh i wud probs say ur (I'm just lazy, can't be bothered to type 'you are') (I'm just lazy, can't be bothered to type 'you are') (I'm just lazy, can't be bothered to type 'you are') better off buying a new one... come to think, a friend of mine owns his on web designs and pc repair business... he can and has find some real nice deals on both duel and quad cores... heres the link to his site if u wanna get in touch (i will put in a good word for u, jus mention my name)  

http://www.xwebdesigns.co.uk

The word censor has been modifying your posts.  Part of the forum guidelines (at top of each section) ask people not to use 'text/mobile speak'

[JezInBrum]

So looks like Dell strikes again. Last time i go near one of their heap of crap systems again.
Will I be able to uprate the PSU or have they gone for yet another odd ball part?
To be fair the system is not that bad. Just that the graphica card is not upto newer games. Putting in a lower spec card is not ideal as it will be more a like for like swap rather than upgrade. WAs thinking of upto £120 on the graphics card

[Ian_D]

What sort of budget are you looking at Jez?

Sometimes it's worth forgetting upgrading an old PC and just go out and buy a new one. You can pick up some really good dual core PCs for around 300-400 quid these days.

Saw a quad core PC for sale in Tescos with 1Tb of drive space and 2Gb RAM the other day on offer for £299. Unreal price.

I would hazard a guess that your old P4 is creaking a bit now, so it might be worth having a think about getting a new one.

I've just upgraded from a P4 3.6 to a dual core 3.16 - the speed difference is very noticeable.

Is the p4 cpu for sale?  

[TheBoy]

So looks like Dell strikes again. Last time i go near one of their heap of crap systems again.
Will I be able to uprate the PSU or have they gone for yet another odd ball part?
To be fair the system is not that bad. Just that the graphica card is not upto newer games. Putting in a lower spec card is not ideal as it will be more a like for like swap rather than upgrade. WAs thinking of upto £120 on the graphics card

The Dell Dimensions, particularly the BTX based ones, aren't bad systems, as the BTX system really was (still is) far superior to the now really old ATX format.  The BTX system was really a desperate requirement in the P4 era, as the chips Intel and particularly AMD were producing needed massive cooling, which meant noise, to run reliably for long periods.

Sadly, AMD did not get behind the idea, and due to slightly increased cost (based on lower volumes), only larger pure Intel shops such as Dell really used it.  Those that did got better reliability.


Unless you have stuffed the system full of other crap - disks, a cd writer for every occasion, etc, that PSU should be adequate if you have just a single dvd writer and a single hard disk, unless the graphics card really is that bad.

[JezInBrum]

Its more the lack of Extra sockets that is that issue. This is the first upgrade I am doing to it. As standard It has a DVD-ROM, A DVD burner, a card reading dock & only the X600 graphics & modem on the mother board, as well as a sound card. The modem is surplus as the braodband is connected via a USB port. I have been doing a bit of hunting round on forums & most throw up the lts power of the PSU along with no expansion capacity.
I dont want to replace the whole PC as I do nto want to change OS & there is plenty of life left in this one, I hope.

[TheBoy]

Its more the lack of Extra sockets that is that issue. This is the first upgrade I am doing to it. As standard It has a DVD-ROM, A DVD burner, a card reading dock & only the X600 graphics & modem on the mother board, as well as a sound card. The modem is surplus as the braodband is connected via a USB port. I have been doing a bit of hunting round on forums & most throw up the lts power of the PSU along with no expansion capacity.
I dont want to replace the whole PC as I do nto want to change OS & there is plenty of life left in this one, I hope.

Some people seem to think that all desktops need 700W PSUs.  The only systems that do are servers and extreme enthusiast machine.

Dimension 5xxx series, from memory offer reasonable expansion if you didn't select 'compact' version. On par with any mATX board, and the case has sufficient space for disks (unlike the larger 9200 series, which is what I use myself ).

The x600 is a midrange card, not sure you'll see a worthwhile improvement going to another midrange card to be honest, even though its newer.

If you are after a gaming machine, though, I think you may have the wrong system - it was pretty reasonable in its day, but must be 3yrs old now, and modern gaming machines do need to be regularly replaced (we're getting to a stage where upgrading isn't money well spent). Or buy an xbox/gaystation...