System components match?

You can up the processore to any Socket T dual core with either a 800 or 1066 mhz Front side Buss(FSB) speed.

Your ram and either be 533 or 667 mhz speed DDR2

The graphics card will be no problem.

The advantages of a single vs a dual or quad core processor when running graphics and photo editing is more on the dual and quad side. So switching to a dual core will improve the performance in those areas. It will also improve the overall preformance of the machine.

Hi ladies and gentlemen: I am upgrading my Dell XPS 400 purchased about 2 years ago. I am upgrading memory to 3GB DDR2 RAM and am upgrading my NVIDIA 7300 to a NVIDIA 8600 GTS. My questions are: 1) can/should I upgrade to a core 2 duo (I have a Pentium D now). 2) and if so, I have read that the core 2 duo I pick should "match" my ram "speed" (e.g., pc6400 or whatever; there is a chart in Wikipedia under Intel Core 2 Duo). What do you folks think? True, important? I would rather not upgrade my PSU unless ABSOLUTELY necessary btw (just want to be able to multitask more, more photo editing, and light gaming eg., COD4, Fallout3, which run fine now btw).

Hello dr_scm, You will see more performance improvement from the memory and the video card upgrade than the processor.

I believe you motherboard supports only 533 and 667 MHZ memory, and not 800 MHZ.

The processor speed would be the most important consideration, and not the difference in the Core 2 Duo.

The Pentium D is a dual core processor.

You would have a little more performance with the Core 2 Duo processor, but I don't think it would be worth the cost and effort.

You may not even notice any performance increase, or very little.

You need to make sure that the memory you upgrade to, is compatible with your XPS400, and if you purchase the new Nvidia 8600GTS, go to the Nvidia web site and download and install the latest drivers for this card.

Hope this helps

How should I know what max speed for my ram?  Is this a motherboard constraint, if so, how could I determine (does CPU-Z offer any help here, for example)? And regarding my videocard, I went with the 8600 GTS based on alot of time on NVIDIAs web-site and checking a couple of forums, but like my memory, how should/could I know what the major constraint is for my card?  Everyone is raving over the 8800 GT but somewhere in my research I think I saw it needed a PCIe 2.0 and I think my XPS400 only has a PCIe x16.  Regardless, is there a comparable speed (FSB?) or some other constraint I should be aware of (like for my memory upgrade)?

Hello dr_scm, The memory limitation is determined by the motherboard chipset. I had a friend with this very same XPS400, that called me about his system slowdown recently. He is into gaming big time.

He was considering a memory upgrade, and asked me about it. He also has a Pentium D processor, 2.8.

I looked at the specifications on the Dell site for this system and it stated the maximum memory speed for this system was 667 MHZ. You would notice little difference with 800 MHZ modules, even if the XPS 400 supported it. I have an 8800 GT and from where I sit, although it is a nice card, you wouldn't notice that much difference between the one you are looking at and the 8800GT.

But this is just my opinion, and others, I am sure, would disagree.

If I recall correctly, my friend's system had all the memory slots filled and he asked about upgrading to 3 GBs as well.

I advised him he would have to replace all his current memory and install new memory since his memory slots had some 4x512 MB modules.

He priced the memory at Dell for around $100.00 for 3 GBs and decided not to upgrade the memory after the system performance increased after the re-install.

I walked my friend through a Dell Recovery Restore over the phone, after he backed up all his data, and he now advises his system, that took 3-4 minutes to boot, now takes 30 seconds.

I would suggest this approach after you upgrade your system, if you have not done it since you got the system.

You would be surprised what a fresh install will do for the performance of your system.

Hope this helps.

Dell Factory Restore with XP

Dell Factory Restore with Vista