Dimension 8200 with ATI Radeon 9800 Pro

Hello all,

I know this topic has been discussed many times on this forum, but I've got another spin on it. Currently, I have a Dell 8200 with a 1.8GHZ processor, 640MB of RDRAM and a 64MB Nvidea GeForce Ti 200 video card. While this combination has worked fine for me over the past 3 years, lately a particular radio controlled flight simulator software has been released which requires some additional ponies than what I currently have. (Optimum configs are a 3.0GHZ processor, 1 gig of RAM and a 128MB vid card while minimum specs are a 1GHZ processor, 256MB of RAM and a 32MB video card.) While the sim runs right now on my current PC, it doesn't exactly have a stellar frame rate. (30 to 50 FPS with many graphic details turned down.)

Now here's the problem. Considering I don't have the funds for a brand new PC right now (gotta love having small kids), I was thinking I might be able to just swap out the video card for an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and see a noticeable increase in performance on this sim. For those of you that have similiar PC specs and switched cards, can you comment as to the performance improvement you noticed in the applications (games) you are currently using? Basically, was it worth the money you spent or would you have been better off saving up for a whole new PC and skipped just the card upgrade?

Thanks!

Responses(3)

Grant

523 Posts

0

January 13th, 2005 03:00

Schuie Driver -

I bought a simlar Dim8200 three years ago (1.8GHz cpu, GF3Ti200 vid card & 256MB RAM) and ran into the same problems... Although I was above the minimum req'd specs, the frame rates and lag on games was driving me crazy. These are the upgrades I performed:

$150 for a (used) 2.8GHz P4 on eBay

$250 for additional 512MB RAMBUS

$200 for a (used) PNY GeForce 6800 on eBay.

For somewhere around $300-$500 you should be able to find a comparable CPU & video card. (Your 640MB RAM is nearly the same as my 768MB - making it hardly worth buying more)

Although my 8200 is far from state-of-the-art, it will play anything I throw at it @ 1024x768 including Need For Speed Underground 2 and NASCAR 2004 with the eye-candy turned all the way up!

Grant

SD

Schuie Driver

5 Posts

0

January 13th, 2005 20:00

Hey Grant,

Thanks so much for the reply! Mind if I ask a few follow up questions? What was required to do the chip upgrade? Did you have to flash your bios or change the motherboard? I'm assuming you just found a chip that had the same front side bus specs as the original? I'm not a huge IT guy so the thought of upgrading the actual processor leaves me a little nervous.

Thanks,

Mike

Grant

523 Posts

0

January 14th, 2005 04:00

No problem -

To replace the chip you don't need to flash the bios, but I did (and recommend it). In fact, flash the upgraded bios BEFORE replacing the chip (I think I have the latest update- v. A09)

The chip specs for my system are Pentium4 - Socket 478 - 400MHz front-side-bus. Intel only shows that they went up to 2.6GHz with this processor, but there were 2.8 and 3.0GHz made in limited quantities. Good luck finding one, eBay was my friend in this case.

So far as removing / replacing the cpu, it's really very easy - what you need to do is visit:

http://www.spongebobsupgradesite.com/

This site has EVERYTHING you'll need to know about working on your 8200.

And I'll go ahead and answer your next question, too - Yes, it's ok to reuse the thermal contact patch that goes between the cpu and the heatsink. That's what I did and my system runs fine.

Good luck and yell if you have any other questions!

Grant

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