Advice needed on upgrading a P133 Dell Desktop

[Salvador]

Hi,

I have an old Dell desktop that I can't decide whether it would be worth upgrading at this point or scrapping. It's a P133 with 160 mb's of RAM, 2 mb video card, SB AWE sound, 6 gb hdd.

I put the extra RAM in there a couple of years ago and added the 6 gb drive that replaced a 2 gig hdd.

I'd like to get away with an inexpensive way to squeeze out some more use out of it before it goes to pc heaven. I was thinking about adding a faster chip if I can find one. What would be the fastest Pentium chip that I could go with on this mobo? I'm sorry, I have no idea which mobo I have.

Any and all advice would be appreciated! I don't want to put much into this thing because I can find a cheap system for not much more than a couple hundred these days.

Thanks,

Sal

 

[karmasalad]

Well, if you're technically-inclined, you can always toss Linux on that machine and discover the wonderful world of open source... a world without M$. (Assuming, of course, that this isn't your primary machine.)

That's what I would do anyhow, and I plan on doing with an old IBM I have lying around just waiting to be revived.

 

[John]

Go to support.dell.com and enter in your service tag. Find the system documentation and review the (motherboard) specs.

 

[Salvador]

I do want to go with a Linux box at some time. As a matter of fact, this is where this 366 Celeron system is going once I get my next system built.

If I find the specs for the mobo, will it tell me what CPU the mobo supports? Or.. Can I post the information here to get more specific help?

I'm somewhat technically-inclined. I'm learning a ton all the time since I took a real interest in this.

Thanks again,

Sal

 

[Razl]

support.dell.com will tell you what the max. cpu you can use on your board. All Dell boards are made by Intel (partnership - that's why you won't see Dell selling AMD chips). However, the boards/BIOS are Dell proprietary, meaning you have limited control of the settings.

You probably can?t use a CPU upgrade kits (ie Evergreen) cause you won?t be able to adjust default voltage. You can always go to a cpu upgrade site and enter you Dell model # for compatibility. My guess is you won?t be able to get a cpu that going to make a difference.

Let?s say for argument, Dell says you can upgrade to a 200MHz. 150MHz to 200MHz is significant in percentage, but performance will still be lacking.

I?d suggest you pull your hard drive, CDROM and sound card from your current system and purchase a new motherboard and cpu. You may be able to match a motherboard with your RAM (maybe).

If you want the cheapest setup, I?d suggest a Celeron and BX board (less than $100). If you want to go middle-of-the-road, then consider a Duron and KT133 chipset board (less than $150). Not knowing your budget, I limit to that.

PS. I didn?t suggest you keep the 2MB card because if you upgrade, I definitely at least spring the cash for a 2X or better AGP card. Games or no games, you want to free the cpu from tasks as much as possible.