Any 400 MHz bus P4 (to 2.6 GHz) or any Celeron (to 2.8 GHz) will work.  None of the 533 or 800 MHz bus P4s will work, however.

If you replace the mainboard, replace the case and power supply - retrofitting a case this small and with many proprietary connectors, will be an exercise in frustration.  You will also need to purchase a new copy of Windows XP if you do replace the system board (the Dell CD won't work without activation, which Microsoft will likely disallow).

 

Thanks for the reply ejn63.

Say I was to leave the motherboard as it was and just replace the Celeron 1.7 I have now with a P4 2.6 (400), what happens with cooling? Should I just get some more thermal paste and reapply the existing heatsink with shroud, or would you recommend it having the P4 to have its own heatsink with fan attached. I'm just not sure if this existing cooling setup will be sufficient for a P4 2.6. What do Dell do in faster machines these days? Still heatsink/ shroud/ case fan setup?

Thanks.

niraj.patel.

Dell systems still use the shroud and fan setup, so cooling should be fine. A new P-4 or Celeron processer should come with a thermal pad already on it. Buy a retail boxed processor, because it has a three year warranty and only costs a few dollars more than the OEM, that has a one year warranty.    Good vendors for processors are www.newegg.com  and www.zipzoomfly.com

Bev.

 

Hi again,

I can't seem to find a P4 2.6 400FSB anywhere, but I know that they do exist because they're listed on Intel's site. I've seen plenty 533FSB and 800FSB, but from what I understand from the replies, neither of these will work. Does anyone know where I can get a P4 2.6 400FSB from?

If not, I'll have to settle for a 2.8 Celeron, but I'm not sure how much of a difference there will be between the P4 2.6 and the Celeron 2.8 as I don't usually play games much, but would like applications productivity and business applications such as Word, Corel Draw, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express to open quicker and run faster.

I'm wary about changing the motherboard for the reason stated by ejn63 - that I'd have to buy a new copy of XP Home because the Dell disc wouldn't work. Does anyone know a way around this?

Thanks,

Niraj.