Dell Dimension 4700 CPU Fan & Heatsink upgrade

JT232007

The Intel 775 CPU Fan/ Heatsink will not fit the Dimension 4700 OEM motherboard's retention bracket.

Bev.

The mounting pattern is incorrect (it's rectangular, not square) even if the retention bracket is removed.

The only way to change the heatsink is to change the motherboard as well.

Actually, the heatsink from a Dell GX280 tower will fit. It is a nice copper tube with steel fins and almost twice as tall. It is too tall for the green plastic shroud though. On another note, the rear fan in all of the 4700s that I have worked on(9), was blowing IN ! I have worked on hundreds of Dells and I have never seen that in another model. I turned the fans around to exhaust and they ran much cooler.

On another note, the rear fan in all of the 4700s that I have worked on(9), was blowing IN !

That was by design.

Actually, the heatsink from a Dell GX280 tower will fit. It is a nice copper tube with steel fins and almost twice as tall. It is too tall for the green plastic shroud though. On another note, the rear fan in all of the 4700s that I have worked on(9), was blowing IN ! I have worked on hundreds of Dells and I have never seen that in another model. I turned the fans around to exhaust and they ran much cooler.

I have a Dell 4700 with Win XP. Yes it is old but still works. I installed a case fan in the side panel ( 92mm ) blowing in, and it increases the cooling considerable. Using rubber washers for noise insulation helps so the low noise is not distracting. The modification is cheap and effective. It cools the inside including the hard drives.

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What is a good CPU and motherboard upgrade for the Dell 4700. I know I need a faster computer but cannot afford one now. I can afford a CPU, motherboard and power supply

Thank You

falcon

Any micro-ATX motherboard should fit, but if you upgrade to something more modern, you'll likely need new memory, too (4gb of DDR3 is only around $25, though), and a 92mm chassis fan (around $10).

I have first-hand experience in this area, having upgraded a Dimension 3000 (which shares the same chassis) to an ASRock AM3 motherboard with quad-core CPU.

Note that the new Socket 1150 platform doesn't support XP, but AMD still does.