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Jeff
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As the poster before me mentioned, it is really up to you to look it up. However, I can perhaps tell you now that the best option would be first of all to update your BIOS to the latest version, and then upgrade the CPU to something like another Pentium D with the best specifications available. You may be able to upgrade RAM, etc as well.
The motherboard BIOS is usually tailored to CPUs matching that particular socket.
My personal recommendation is to upgrade to a higher specification Pentium D processor - it's better to be safe than sorry. (rather than upgrading to a Core 2 Duo only to find that you spent $$$$ and the PC no longer starts up, and/or you have a damaged processor and/or motherboard in the process)
Before you upgrade I would consult the motherboard documentation to check what CPUs it supports.
When exactly did you purchase the system and what is the BIOS date?
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Thanks guys, I'm going to do the 945, I was hoping someone may be able to confirm moving to the core 2 duo but I don't wantto waste $$ or damage things. It's a 3 yr old Dell XPS 400, I have no complaints about how it runs, but like my cars, I'm always looking to upgrade or increase performance. Thanks for taking the time to relpy to my question.
Jeff
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Thanks guys, I'm going to do the 945, I was hoping someone may be able to confirm moving to the core 2 duo but I don't wantto waste $$ or damage things. It's a 3 yr old Dell XPS 400, I have no complaints about how it runs, but like my cars, I'm always looking to upgrade or increase performance. Thanks for taking the time to relpy to my question.
Jeff
It's a DELL?! In which case you may even be better off getting a new machine that is not a Dell and does not have anything to do with Dell. Apparently, from my personal experiences with a several Dell desktops and laptops, I say Dell machines are absolute fuss pots. Especially when it comes to adding/removing and/or changing hardware components (so you may have some trouble getting a newer Pentium D to work too, but I could be wrong). And good luck getting the case open too. I'm fairly surprised you got that thing to last 3 years, let alone not having the battery spontaneously combust. I'm sure one day many problems will show up. Dell machines are time bombs.
Getting a new machine too will probably allow you to get some sort of newer processor such as the Intel Core i7 or so (assuming you want to run only x86-based applications of course!)
Of course, since your machine is 3 years old I would imagine it would be time to switch anyway since the Core 2 Duo wasn't really invented in that time. In fact I don't know of much hope of being able to upgrade even to another Pentium D based on those conditions!
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It's a DELL?! In which case you may even be better off getting a new machine that is not a Dell and does not have anything to do with Dell. Apparently, from my personal experiences with a several Dell desktops and laptops, I say Dell machines are absolute fuss pots. Especially when it comes to adding/removing and/or changing hardware components (so you may have some trouble getting a newer Pentium D to work too, but I could be wrong). And good luck getting the case open too. I'm fairly surprised you got that thing to last 3 years, let alone not having the battery spontaneously combust. I'm sure one day many problems will show up. Dell machines are time bombs.
Getting a new machine too will probably allow you to get some sort of newer processor such as the Intel Core i7 or so (assuming you want to run only x86-based applications of course!)
Of course, since your machine is 3 years old I would imagine it would be time to switch anyway since the Core 2 Duo wasn't really invented in that time. In fact I don't know of much hope of being able to upgrade even to another Pentium D based on those conditions!
I can't say I've ever had a problem with it, but you are not the first to say that either. I back up on a regular basis so I'm not going to lose much if it crashes. It runs fine, runs all the software I need without a problem, but I usually upgrade my processor after a few years to get a few more years out of the machine. I usually replace them at about the 5 yr point and see no reason to replace it at this time. Next one I'll build myself, looking for the components that I want and finding them at a good deal. Thanks for the input.
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It's a DELL?! In which case you may even be better off getting a new machine that is not a Dell and does not have anything to do with Dell. Apparently, from my personal experiences with a several Dell desktops and laptops, I say Dell machines are absolute fuss pots. Especially when it comes to adding/removing and/or changing hardware components (so you may have some trouble getting a newer Pentium D to work too, but I could be wrong). And good luck getting the case open too. I'm fairly surprised you got that thing to last 3 years, let alone not having the battery spontaneously combust. I'm sure one day many problems will show up. Dell machines are time bombs.
Getting a new machine too will probably allow you to get some sort of newer processor such as the Intel Core i7 or so (assuming you want to run only x86-based applications of course!)
Of course, since your machine is 3 years old I would imagine it would be time to switch anyway since the Core 2 Duo wasn't really invented in that time. In fact I don't know of much hope of being able to upgrade even to another Pentium D based on those conditions!
I can't say I've ever had a problem with it, but you are not the first to say that either. I back up on a regular basis so I'm not going to lose much if it crashes. It runs fine, runs all the software I need without a problem, but I usually upgrade my processor after a few years to get a few more years out of the machine. I usually replace them at about the 5 yr point and see no reason to replace it at this time. Next one I'll build myself, looking for the components that I want and finding them at a good deal. Thanks for the input.
Custom building is a good thing to do. You save a lot of money. And I don't see how upgrading the processor will allow you to "get a few more years out of the machine" - I can run a lot of things very fast on my Pentium 150 - in fact some things run faster than on a hyperthreaded Pentium 4! Such as accessing the file system (good ol' WINFILE.EXE here) and now a days clock speed isn't really much of a bother unless you use very processor intensive applications.
My replacement pattern is not 5 yearly like yours is though - in fact I would strongly recommend avoiding that habit (unless you are a developer who needs access to almost cutting edge technology). I would recommend upgrading only when you need to upgrade (such as an ber important piece of application software that you absolutely cannot run on processors with lower specifications than the current one in your machine [or can run with a large noticeable performance penalty]) - Compulsive upgrading is a bad habit.
I would definitely reconsider the decision of keeping the Dell - you bought it 3 years ago (so, in other words,around 2005-2006) - and this is likely to be before the recall - so beware - the dell is unexploded ordinance.
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Custom building is a good thing to do. You save a lot of money. And I don't see how upgrading the processor will allow you to "get a few more years out of the machine" - I can run a lot of things very fast on my Pentium 150 - in fact some things run faster than on a hyperthreaded Pentium 4! Such as accessing the file system (good ol' WINFILE.EXE here) and now a days clock speed isn't really much of a bother unless you use very processor intensive applications.
My replacement pattern is not 5 yearly like yours is though - in fact I would strongly recommend avoiding that habit (unless you are a developer who needs access to almost cutting edge technology). I would recommend upgrading only when you need to upgrade (such as an ber important piece of application software that you absolutely cannot run on processors with lower specifications than the current one in your machine [or can run with a large noticeable performance penalty]) - Compulsive upgrading is a bad habit.
I would definitely reconsider the decision of keeping the Dell - you bought it 3 years ago (so, in other words,around 2005-2006) - and this is likely to be before the recall - so beware - the dell is unexploded ordinance.
It was purchased Jan 2006, I don't think I'd call it compulsive, Memory andHard Drive upgrades are usually beneficial upgrades as software requirements usually dictate the need toupgrade, not so much the processor but while you're in there and opened up....
What is this recall you speak of? I've never heard of it before and all my info Dell has is still the same and I've never gotten any thing like that from them.
Thanks again for helping educate me, some of us old dogs can learn new tricks.
Jeff
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It was purchased Jan 2006, I don't think I'd call it compulsive, Memory andHard Drive upgrades are usually beneficial upgrades as software requirements usually dictate the need toupgrade, not so much the processor but while you're in there and opened up....
What is this recall you speak of? I've never heard of it before and all my info Dell has is still the same and I've never gotten any thing like that from them.
Thanks again for helping educate me, some of us old dogs can learn new tricks.
Jeff
No longer relevent but speaking of processing power and upgrading I have a 9 year old t20 thinkpad with a 600mhz processor I used to tinker with, watch movies, email, surf the web, of course it still runs great, but I opened it up and put a 900mhz processor, upgraded ram and faster hdd so the only bottleneck was the fsb, made an improvement in performance, I have like 7 laptops laying around, and if needed the old t20 could still do the basics hehe.
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