I personally wouldn't advise upgrading this system. By the time you factor in the cost of the Windows 7 license, Graphics card (onboard graphics below the minimum requirements for Windows 7, you will have a blurry screen) and RAM you have spend about half to two thirds the price of a new computer.
Total ~ $250. Of course shop around to get more competitive prices...
Not to mention the hard drive (the most likely component to fail) is IDE which is an obsolete interface and harder/more pricy to get spares. The RAM is only DDR.
Philip_Yip
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Posted March 30th, 2014 06:00
Windows 7 32 Bit will work at a push if you upgrade your video card and have more than 1 GB of RAM:
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19390665.aspx
I personally wouldn't advise upgrading this system. By the time you factor in the cost of the Windows 7 license, Graphics card (onboard graphics below the minimum requirements for Windows 7, you will have a blurry screen) and RAM you have spend about half to two thirds the price of a new computer.
Windows 7 ~$140
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116989
Memory ~$58
http://www.crucial.com/upgrade/Dell-memory/Dimension+%2F+Dimension+XPS/Dimension+3000-upgrades.html
Graphics Card ~$50
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/desktop/f/3515/t/19390665.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Zotac-ZT-40605-10L-nVidia-GeForce-GT430/dp/B005TIEC5C
Total ~ $250. Of course shop around to get more competitive prices...
Not to mention the hard drive (the most likely component to fail) is IDE which is an obsolete interface and harder/more pricy to get spares. The RAM is only DDR.
New Desktop with Windows 8.1 64 Bit ~$330
http://www.dell.com/us/p/desktops?ref=tile4#!dlpgid=everyday-desktops
This will run circles around your old Dell.
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Windows 7 Installation Guide