tofumonster

Well I have a Dell XPS Gen 3 (from 2004?) The specs are:

Pentium 4 3.2Ghz with HT
1GB DDR2 SDRAM
SoundBlaster Audigy 2
ATI X800 XT 256MB PCI-E x16

I would like to upgrade it and not buy a new setup yet. When I have a job I will hand this one to my brother and build myself a computer. But for now I would just to upgrade it for now. Is there any upgrades I can add to max this old computer up?

I can play Call of Duty 4 fine as well as UT3 on high detail for around a good 20-40 FPS but I'd like to push it more to run smoother. A few more questions; Will adding 2GB more RAM boost it up a bit? Can a GeForce 8800GT card be put in this system?

I have a budget of ~$200, can you also link to some parts if it is not too much trouble?

-Thank you,
Tommy V.

kris23

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory

get yourself some of these and youll get plenty more power

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102747

probably cant get both but this is good too

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102747

and once you build a new system, simply take the RAM and GPU to your new build, theyre extremely powerful

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tofumonster

Thanks for the reply but I think my RAM slots are limited to 1GB per slot. How's that card compare to an 8800GT?

kris23

lets just say its a bit more powerful than the 9800GTX+ also, what motherboard model do you have?

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tofumonster

It is the Dell stock one, I think Intel 925X based motherboard.

kris23

looking at the chipset specs, it can support 2x2GB as its maximum is 4, though since its a dell and the BIOS is almost always locked, you will need sticks that run at 1.8v capacity doesnt matter but the cheapest method and probably best performing is to get 2x1GB sticks, you will loose around 512mb of RAM thanks to the GPU but its still better than running only 3 sticks.

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tofumonster

Thanks, will take under consideration. I've been looking around and many have said that my processor will bottleneck a 8800GT so won't it do the same to that Radeon HD card?

kris23

yea it would, but if you are planning to upgrade sometime soon, it can be put into a better system, theres not any better value than the 4850, and the x800 is already nearly all the P4 can handle, the 4850 will at least allow you to play more games than with the x800

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Judas

just a fyi

check Dell's website... search for your product and see what it has for memory upgrade options..

dell has a HUGE habit of preventing non dell supporter memory modules from working at all or properly.

They also modify thier motherboards, or get slightly modified chips.... i would not be surprised if 1gb sticks are the max... and 2gb wouldn't work.

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kris23

usually kingston is good for Dell systems as they are always speced the same as the OEM modules

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Judas

yeah dell promotes kingston ram...

but check the dell store... see if 2gb sticks are available.

because even when using kingston... sometimes dell does something stupid.

one case i ran into was using even dell memory... rated faster then the system was speced for orginally.. the damn thing would boot due to the memory being pc133 and not pc100.... EVEN with another stick of dell supplied PC100 ram in either slot...

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