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Dude, How do you Overclock a Dell ? or build a better system for same price ?

G

gsethi

Diamond Member
as the topic says, how do you overclock a Dell system ?

I have a Dell Dimension 4400 w/ Intel P4 1.6 Ghz. (got one during those hot deals)
My question is, how do i overclock it ?

It has an Intel 845 mobo in it.
 
The last Dell I looked at, a 4400, didn't even have BIOS boot notices or easy access to the BIOS. Dude, you're stuck with a stock Dell.
 
Usually Dell uses OEM Intel motherboards.

No overclocking options at all. Period.
 
Hehe... you usually don't. Those sytems come stocked with motherboards that aren't very overclockable. You could check in your bios for fsb/multiplier adjustment settings but I highly doubt they will be there. If this is the Dell business model then you probably won't be able to OC at all. However, I could be very very wrong... Just look in your bios settings and see if it allows you to mess with voltages, fsb settings and multiplier settings.
 
hmm.....i can access the BIOS on the mobo but no setting to set the multipliers. i can that is all disable.

Dude, i got a Dell which I cant overclock 🙁

Anyway, i got the whole deal for only $377. cant ask for more than that. Anyway i can built a comparable system for $400 ?

Intel 845 mobo
Intel P4 1.6 Ghz (willametta 478 pin)
128 MB ddr (i added another 256 chip myself, total 384)
40 GB maxtor 7200 rpm HD
GEForce 2 MX 32 MB video card
10/100 NIC

any suggestions as i am thinking of ebaying this system...
what should i get ?

Thanks

 
IMO that's a lot of computer for what you paid and just upgrading the vid card would sufficently increase performance.
 
so you suggest keeping this system and just upgrade the video card ?
What video card should i go with and where i can get one for cheap ?

Also, i have a total of 384 mb (samsung DDR PC 2100) ram. Should i consider adding more too ?

Is there any way i can flash upgrade the BIOS on my system so that i can change the voltages, FSP and multiplier settings ?

Thanks
 
As the AT FAQ Man stated, it is very unlikely that any overclocking can be done on that board but perhaps someone who knows of a tweaked bios will hook you up. As far as the ram goes 384mb is plenty for most stuff so upgrading isn't a must. And my suggestion for a vid card is the GF4 4200 which is due out soon in the 150-175$ range I think and they say it out performs a ti500 comfortably so it should be a price/performance winner.
 
do video cards really improve the performance to justify $150 ?

i am not a hardcore gamer....just play UT like once a week mostly 1 hour just for fun.
Mostly, i do programming, little bit graphics, and lots of work on applications.

I always thought that more ram and processor power would increase the performance. Never thought that a video card can improve the performance that much tooo.

btw, i looked into the BIOS and it seemed like a proprietory DELL BIOS to me. It wasn't an Award or Phoenix Bios, and at the top it said, Dell 4400 System setup in the Bios.
 
Ahhh, my bad! I didn't think to ask what your primary usage needs were. Given what you do then I agree your money is better spent on something besides a gamer's card. However, I don't do graphics design, and I'm definitly no coder but more ram is always better. As to the CPU, is the system not performing adequately? I took your post about the 400$ to mean that you were stapped somewhat for cash and need an economical upgrade if any.
 
well.......more speed is always good. i am reading so many posts here about overclocking and so i wondered if i could overclock a bit too.

this computer has been performing excellent for me. Except when i get into doing some graphics, then it hangs sometimes. Probably lack of memory or is it the video card ?
i was thinking of adding some more memory, atleast making total 784 mb (replacing the 128 chip w/ 512 chip).

Although i got money to spend on it, but i also choose not to just spend my money on the latest things. I want to get the best value for my $$$$ spent, so...
i coulda gotten the GEF3 in this comp for extra $140 but i decided against it...but if its going to improve the performance of the PC drastically, i might upgrade it in a month..hoping that GEF3 would come down in price a bit more.

Its just the crave for little more speed but i guess that i cant overclock since i am stuck with a DELL. well, i am gonna build my next PC for sure (that was what i had decided for this PC but for $377 shipped, i just couldnt resist this Dell)
 
I'm not sure what you mean by hangs, do you mean stops responding for a bit or locks up? if it's a lack of memory then the HDD will be blinking like crazy. I would post in the video forum that you need a good entry level graphics card or a gamer card that's O.K. for light graphics duty and see what the Gurus suggest before buying the GF3. Anyways, the P4 1.6A or 1.8A/P4S333 combo has made me and many others happy campers so it would be an excellent choice for your new rig.
 
when i am working with 2 images, it works fine. while working with more than 2 images, it works for couple of minutes and then it justs stops responding. Then i have to manually reboot the computer. maybe, i just need little bit more ram to work with graphics.

the current CPU in my desktop is not a 1.6a, its just the plain 1.6. i think that i wont be needed a new computer if i decide to keep this one. I think that for $375, you cannot get a better deal than what i got. Maybe i will add a better video card. the current one is GEF2 mx 200 w/ 64 mb memory.
 
Hey man you made a smart decision by adding more ram over the stock 128. Did you include that extra ram in the $377 purchase price? At any rate...with or without the ram....you would be very hard pressed to find a better deal, or make yourself a computer for a lower price. I personally would have went for that in a heartbeat if I needed a new system. My suggestion would be to add more ram like you said (maybe just another 128...for a total of 512, but if you want to up to 768 i'm not going to stop you...lord knows i would like that much). Anyway If you just want to do some simple graphics stuff you might look into a radeon 7500 (64mb DDR versions can be had for as cheep as $69 on the net; www.ussa.com had them last time I checked). Or if you have a little more to spend a Radeon 8500 or a GF4 TI4200 might be a good idea. Personally I have the 8500 and it performs great when I do a little bit of photoshop/psp7. However If I wasn't a gamer I would have went for the 7500 which seems to be a pretty good deal at that price. 🙂
 
Dude, You could try softFSB, to up that FSB, once you're in windows, used to work just fine in the pentium II-III / celeron era.

You can get a copy of the soft here: http://www.voodoofiles.com/ (search softfsb)

and the difficult part will be to figure out your clock generator......oh wait, you guys have it so easy nowadays, sisoft sandra will give it to you in its mainboard section, you don't even have to open up the computer....

the development on softfsb has stopped 2 years ago, so if your clock generator is not supported, there are other soft that will allow you to change the FSB on the fly, you may have to do a search on this.

I used it to overclock el cheapo mobo like sis 620 and oem systems back then when a 50% overclocking was possible....

 
If you aren't a gamer, I doubt you would notice any difference with a new video card.
Playing games is a different story. UT would run smoother with a better card, and if you buy any new games, it would be nice to have a faster video card that would keep your framerates high.

384MB is plenty for most people, but if you run a lot of applications at once and are constantly switching back and forth, you may notice a performance boost by adding RAM, I'm not sure.

I've got 256MB of SDRAM in my P3 1Ghz laptop with Win2K, and at work, I am usually running Visual Basic 6.0, SQL Server Query Analyzer, SQL Enterprise Manager, Lotus Notes, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Access, and several other apps all at the same time and I don't notice any slowdown or lag time when switching between them.

That looks like a nice system. I wouldn't change anything unless you really think you need it.

And I highly doubt that a system hang would be caused by lack of memory, unless your virtual memory is set too low, and then you should get some kind of error message that you are running low on memory. As someone pointed out, if you don't have enough memory, your hard drive should be spinning a bunch since it is used as virtual memory when you run out of physical memory. The result of this might be a system slowdown, but shouldn't be a hang or crash.
 


<< buy a cheap clock. put your dell on top of it. your dell is officially overclocked... >>



lol, good one. It would have to be a pretty sturdy clock though. That dell is probably pretty heavy.
 
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