Upgrading a Dimension 8300

Question

Somebody had a post about upgrading a Dimension 8250 a few days ago. I'm wondering about my 8300. I have a Geforce FX 5200 video card. I would like a Geforce 7800GS, but don't want my computer to be too hot or the CPU to be bottlenecked and I don't want to spend $xxx on a computer thats 3 or 4 years old. I am wondering about either the Geforce 7600GT AGP 8x card or the Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP card. Which do people recommend?

jpp8300 · Answer

It turns out that I put in the Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro from my Optiplex GX400 in my 8300. The gx400 was way too old to take advantage of the 9800 pro's power.

Jayavarman · Answer

So, I'm in the same boat and think I'm the guy that posted the upgrade post you referred to.

I've identified a number of AGP boards:

SAPPHIRE 100198L Radeon X1650 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $69.99 Pict SAPPHIRE 100217L Radeon HD 2600PRO 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 8X HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail $89.99 Pict Pict Pict

EVGA 256-A8-N542-T2 GeForce 7600GS 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail $99.99

EVGA 256-A8-N506-AX Geforce 7800GS CO 256MB AGP $168.99

(all prices from newegg)

Just not sure which board with be the best bang for the buck (without being crippled by the CPU's speed).

Dale Nihiser · Answer

jpp8300 wrote:

Somebody had a post about upgrading a Dimension 8250 a few days ago. I'm wondering about my 8300. I have a Geforce FX 5200 video card. I would like a Geforce 7800GS, but don't want my computer to be too hot or the CPU to be bottlenecked and I don't want to spend $xxx on a computer thats 3 or 4 years old. I am wondering about either the Geforce 7600GT AGP 8x card or the Radeon HD 2600 Pro AGP card. Which do people recommend?

First and foremost avoid the Radeon x1xx series all together. There are too many complaints from members who have difficulty getting the cards to run on older Dell gear such as yours.

A 7600gt with gddr3 memory would be ideal but unfortunately the cards are becoming scarce. So that leaves the slower 7600gs model with gddr2 memory.

A compromise might be the 7900gs apg and yes your cpu will bottleneck the card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150174

Definitely a superior card to the 7600gt, but also might require a psu upgrade too. A 7800gs would definitely need a psu upgrade.

I haven't any experience to report on using the HD series of Radeons in an 8300.

I agree I wouldn't spend too much on the 8300. Your money would be better spent picking up a Dell model from their outlet store and upgrade a base machine.

Good Luck

Dale

Cool Master Centurion 5 CAC-T05 Mid tower case
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego--->AMD Opteron 180 Dual Core
MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 ATX motherboard
2GB Cosair ValueSelect PC 3200 DDR 400 SDRAM
BFG GeForce 7950GT 512Mb pci-e x16
WD 3200KS 320Gb 7200rpm SATA II HD
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200Gb 7200rpm SATA 150 HD
Lite-on LH20A1H-185 DVD Burner
Plextor 708A 8x DVD Burner
OCz GameXstream 700 watt psu
Logitech Optical Mouse MX310
Xbox 360 PC Rumblepad
Altec-Lansing headphones w/mic
22 inch Westy widescreen LCM 22w3
Windows XP Home SP2(all updates)
D-Link 524 Wireless Ethernet Broadband Router

jpp8300 · Answer

I just bought a Radeon X700 Pro on ebay for $20! I also just bought an extra 512MB DDR400 (2x256) kit on oempcworld for $35. My parents might buy me an SE178WFP Flat Panel to replace my M782 CRT. I wish to steer clear of Windows Vista for now. I'll probably wait another 6 months to a year to buy a new desktop. My 8300 is sufficient for my needs as of now.

Dale Nihiser · Answer

jpp8300 wrote:

I just bought a Radeon X700 Pro on ebay for $20! I also just bought an extra 512MB DDR400 (2x256) kit on oempcworld for $35. My parents might buy me an SE178WFP Flat Panel to replace my M782 CRT. I wish to steer clear of Windows Vista for now. I'll probably wait another 6 months to a year to buy a new desktop. My 8300 is sufficient for my needs as of now.

That's the way to do it. Keep those upgrades costs down for an older system. I didn't know the x700 was available as an AGP card, pci-e x16 yes, but not AGP.

And I thought the 8300 took rdram memory.

At any rate good luck.

Dale

jpp8300 · Answer

I took a look at the picture and it was indeed pci-e (DOH!) I can't believe the seller didn't specify.. Looks like I'll be putting it in my mom's computer (Dell XPS 410 e6600, 2gb ram, geforce 7300LE) I may consider putting a geforce 6200 agp to replace the fx5200. The Radeon 9800 that i had mentioned earlier has a screw missing to the left of the vga input. I'll be selling it. And the RAM isn't coming until the 22nd...

jpp8300 · Answer

see next post Message Edited by jpp8300 on 01-19-2008 08:03 PM

jpp8300 · Answer

I got an ATI Radeon X850Pro on ebay for $85. I don't want my 3GHz Pentium 4 to be bottlenecked by the Geforce 7600 Series. I have a friend with an 8250 with an X800 GTO and it worked perfectly on his system.

Message Edited by jpp8300 on 01-19-2008 08:02 PM

Dale Nihiser · Answer

That will work too.  Nice card for your system.  Make sure you use the drivers from www.amd.com rather than the disc that comes with the card.   Good Luck Dale

jpp8300 · Answer

And to the reply about vista, it works fine on my 8300. The only bugaboo was that there were no ADI 198x Sound Drivers for vista, so I had to buy a Turtle Beach Riviera PCI sound card. That was only $29 on newegg.

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Upgrading a Dimension 8300

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