Upgrading Dimension 9150

PixelNEM  

The 9150 supports Pentium 4 or Pentium D processors only and does not support either the Core 2 Duo or Quad core processors.

You should be able to upgrade to a Pentium D 960 3.6GHz, which is not much of an upgrade to the D945 and basically not worth the cost.

Bev.

Thank you for your reply. I can remember that it was possible due to an updatet chipset. On the intel website the 945p chipset supports Core 2 Duo. Overclocking isn't an option so I want to upgrade to a new and more advanced processor achitecture.

If only Dell could just supply documentation of the 9150 hardware options at the time being. Or documenation on the DXP051 motherboard.

Could anybody clarify this matter and give input on the graphic cards as well. Thank you

Greetings

PixelNEM

It is not the chipset that's the problem, the Core 2 processors require a different voltage regulator design that the 9150 motherboard does not have.

Bev.

Could anybody clarify this matter and give input on the graphic cards as well. Thank you

Hello,

I have the 9150 as well with the 3.2 CPU,

As yes, the fastest CPU for this unit is 3.6. After research I decided the cost did not justify any increase in performance going to the 3.6 CPU.

I have the same amount of memory which is all I need for XP pro since the 32 bit OS limits of 3.2 to 3.6 depending on the graphics card memory. Since this system is 64 bit capable, I will add 2 more GB when/if I upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit.

About the best you can do for any performance increase is a clean install of Windows if your install is over a year old (I just reinstalled and found at least a 20% increase in performance), or installing a better video card. Your GeForce 7300 LE has only a 64 bit memory interface. Other versions like the GT have double that and offer a large increase in fill rate, but just a small increase in frames per second. Unless you plan on using very new games, or just play a bunch of graphics intensive games you may not see any improvement. But if you want the best video, you can surly find a better card that will work in your PCI express slot.

Thanks.

I have been doing more and more numerical simulations recently. My CPU sometimes run 100 % for a couple of hours. I am not sure how I could make my system more suited for such an application now that I can't change the processor.

I have always been very pleased with my Dell PC, I guess I am just finding limits to the suitability for some applications (in particular upgrading possibilites) Thank again.

Greetings

PixelNEM

You are welcome.

Bev.