CPU Upgrade for Dimension XPS T450

Thomas Wos 

You can find information about upgrading the XPS T Series processor HERE

Bev.

I see from Dell documentation that the Dimension XPS T series was available with a Intel Pentium 3 850 (Coppermine?). I also see a BIOS upgrade with P3 Coppermine support. Anyone have any experience with a CPU upgrade on a Dimension XPS T Series? Thanks for any help. Tom

Years ago upgraded our V350 and R400 to 1 Gig in two steps.

V350 and R400 to 750 and then 1 Gig with a bios change, last one being either A11 or 12 and still have them on floppies.

The T guys started to do the same thing after they found out we were doing it.

Only difference between V/R and the T series was the 100/133mhz bus.

Could have gone to the Powerleap 1.4 gig for them but were getting old in the tooth for Software,Support and new peripherals.

Dell wasn't real happy about what we were doing back then, but bought a few more years for us.

Still have the old V1000 and R1000 with 98se on them as backups.

New Studio XPS 435 now and still getting to know this new fangled stuff now.

Go for it.:emotion-21:

Later

I have an R350 that I upgraded to Intel Pentium 3 850 about 6 or 7 years ago following the info on Rob Hancock's upgrade page.  As it was pointed out, this added a few more years to the old system.

Given the prices of new machines, I am not sure it is worth spending the money to do this upgrade.  Even the slowest processors today are significantly faster than an P3 850.  Moreover, you are limited to the amount of RAM you can put in the T series.  Also the hard drives are older IDE devices and I don't recall if the motherboard is even ATA-66.  Also, it doesn't have any PCI express slots so you are very limited in getting a new video card.

While I hated to retire my old reliable R350, I am very happy that I upgraded to a new Inspriron 530 with a Q6600, 4G of RAM and a 500 GD hard drive.

Just something to think about ...

pab49162

I have an R350 that I upgraded to Intel Pentium 3 850 about 6 or 7 years ago following the info on Rob Hancock's upgrade page.  As it was pointed out, this added a few more years to the old system. Given the prices of new machines, I am not sure it is worth spending the money to do this upgrade.  Even the slowest processors today are significantly faster than an P3 850.  Moreover, you are limited to the amount of RAM you can put in the T series.  Also the hard drives are older IDE devices and I don't recall if the motherboard is even ATA-66.  Also, it doesn't have any PCI express slots so you are very limited in getting a new video card. While I hated to retire my old reliable R350, I am very happy that I upgraded to a new Inspriron 530 with a Q6600, 4G of RAM and a 500 GD hard drive. Just something to think about ... pab49162

 Agree on the ram and video card limitations and unless you could still get a gig proccessor very cheap probably

not practicable.

 Can still get a good AGP card  cheap as well as ram but unless you could max it out for under 200 and use it as a backup

or secondary machine not worth it.

 I have maxed out our v350 and r400,Proccessors,Video,Audio,drives,ram ect and run 98se very good and fast but would

not be able to handle Win 2000 and up OSs.

 Just wish XP/Vista ect. were as non power hungry and smooth as 98se was.

My two centavos.:emotion-21:

Later

Thanks everyone for your replies.

The machine was a freebie,  so after doing a clean install of Win XP,  and adding a new NIC and memory to 512K,  it was a respectable comp. for the wife's surfing and word processing.

Now after flashing to A09 BIOS, I have a  P3 850 coming for $12, and hopefully will swap out the 450.

The R. Hancock site has helped alot, Thanks Bev!

Peace

Tom

Tom.

Happy to have helped.      :emotion-11:

There's nothing wrong with the older Dell PC's providing one realizes their limitations.       :emotion-5:

I was given a pristine 2000 Dimension L Series PC, last  year, installed a PCI NIC card, a PCI video and PCI USB 2.0 cards, flashed the BIOS to version A14, upgraded the Socket 370 processor to a 800MHz and RAM to 512mb [from 64mb].  Installed a used burner and 2 80gb IDE hard drives, pulled from recycled PC's

Both the RAM and processor were free, from upgrades I did years ago, LOL, all I've spent was $55 on the cards and am still running the OEM 98se, but it's a job to find 98se drivers and applications, so might upgrede to XP,  I do have a new spare OEM copy of XP Home Edition, on hand.

Bev.

pab,

Already have Windows "Adjusted for best performance".  Good suggestion!

I will also try your virtual memory tip.

Thanks!

Tom 

Never having upgraded an existing processor before, I was wondering what kind of issues I might encounter.

How will Win XP react when it sees a new CPU? Can I change the CPU without a new OS install?

Will Win XP have driver support?

I have the appropriate BIOS, so I'm good there.

Any replies greatly appreciated!

Tom

Tom

How will Win XP react when it sees a new CPU?

If the processor is compatible, it should be recognized in the System Setup [BIOS].

Can I change the CPU without a new OS install?

Yes.

Will Win XP have driver support?

XP will support the new processor.

Bev.

 Post back after you try the install as will be curious as to it wil load or recogonize the CPU and other

hardware.

Reading up on requirements for these machines even 1 gig cpu and 1 gig ram was very marginal for XP and up.

Win 7 has a application you can run to see if a machine can run the OS.

If it works for you at 850 may try Win 7 on her XPS R400/1000 machine.

Good luck:emotion-1:

Later

Small victories, hard fought.

Processor installed without even a blink!

Peace

Tom

Tom

Please to hear that the upgrade was successful and thank's for the heads up.    :emotion-11:

Bev.

BIOS system info now reads Dimension XPS T850R.

Now I need to upgrade my A7m266/Athlon 1.2 !!!

XPS T Series is a Modified SE440BX Seattle motherboard.

Max CPU with INTEL bios is 1.0Ghz Coppermine Pentium3.