Gaming Upgrading Dell Dimension 9150

Minox

Thanks for the fish
Former Staff
Joined
Aug 27, 2007
Messages
6,988
Trophies
2
XP
6,127
Country
Japan
Dell Dimension 9150 doesn't support anything else than DDR2 so there should be no problem to upgrade RAM, just buy RAM that is compatible with your computer and it should work perfectly.
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
Rarely use the desktop. Cant remember the details if it had ddr2 or ddr.
If DDR2 then no problemo.

What the graphics card then?
 

Minox

Thanks for the fish
Former Staff
Joined
Aug 27, 2007
Messages
6,988
Trophies
2
XP
6,127
Country
Japan
Kamui said:
Rarely use the desktop. Cant remember the details if it had ddr2 or ddr.
If DDR2 then no problemo.

What the graphics card then?
That mostly depends on how powerful your PSU is, so you better look it up before we can give any suggestions.
 

Raki

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
554
Trophies
0
XP
98
Country
Gambia, The
well this is a good question to ask because I have a PC with similar specs
BTX mainboard (w/ intel p945 chipset)
3 GHz Pentium D
1 GB DDR2 533 MHz (the MB should be able to handle up to 667 MHz...dunno why they just built in 533 MHz RAM)
Geforce 6700XL (slightly faster than a 6600GT)
400 W PSU

I'm considering upgrading the video card and the RAM, but as cheap as possible and it should fit this BTX housing
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
Here more details:
Motherboard chipset:
Intel 945P Express chipset
PCI slots:
4 memory, 3 PCI, 1 PCI Express x1, 1 PCI Express x16


@Raki
Very similar to my system indeed...
 

Joe88

[λ]
Global Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
12,736
Trophies
2
Age
36
XP
7,399
Country
United States
you cant use DDR2 on a motherboard that only works with DDR
there is a different number of pins and the way it plugs in is different and that it wont work anyway

the gfx card (assuming you have a PCI-e 16x slot as stated) is upgradable
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
Joe88 said:
you cant use DDR2 on a motherboard that only works with DDR
there is a different number of pins and the way it plugs in is different and that it wont work anyway

the gfx card (assuming you have a PCI-e 16x slot as stated) is upgradable
the motherboard does support ddr2 ("Intel® 945P Express Chipset").
I do have PCI-e 16x slot. What should I upgrade to?
 

Joe88

[λ]
Global Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
12,736
Trophies
2
Age
36
XP
7,399
Country
United States
im confused now
in the first post you said you have DDR not DDR2 as stated in the link

take a CPU-z screenshot of the ram
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
Yah wasnt sure. I was corrected by Minox. Didnt remember the specs.
I Will edit the first post now.
I do have DDR2 ram.(2 gig)
So what graphics card do you recommend?
 

Minox

Thanks for the fish
Former Staff
Joined
Aug 27, 2007
Messages
6,988
Trophies
2
XP
6,127
Country
Japan
Joe88 said:
im confused now
in the first post you said you have DDR not DDR2 as stated in the link

take a CPU-z screenshot of the ram
He was wrong, Dimension 9100, 9150 and 9200 all came with DDR2 RAM and can't use anything else.

As for GPUs I'm not quite sure if I could be to any help there
frown.gif
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
Minox_IX said:
Joe88 said:
im confused now
in the first post you said you have DDR not DDR2 as stated in the link

take a CPU-z screenshot of the ram
He was wrong, Dimension 9100, 9150 and 9200 all came with DDR2 RAM and can't use anything else.

As for GPUs I'm not quite sure if I could be to any help there
frown.gif
Hmm. If required, can change the PSU aswell.
 

Joe88

[λ]
Global Moderator
Joined
Jan 6, 2008
Messages
12,736
Trophies
2
Age
36
XP
7,399
Country
United States
you can upgrade to 4GB

im not sure if your memory is running at 667mhz or 533mhz
so download CPU-z and take a screenshot of the memory tab
 

FAST6191

Techromancer
Editorial Team
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
36,798
Trophies
3
XP
28,282
Country
United Kingdom
Some thoughts, next time build a machine as it gives you far more control over things and also means you can put good things in there (dell, hp and the rest have very tight margins and they cut corners wherever they can).

2 gigs of ram is fine for just about everything you will want to do (once again my games, video and cad (all high end work too) runs fine on 2 gigs), looking at CPUz shots you gave it is clocked at a reasonable speed and has fairly tight timings. If and when the time comes to upgrade do it then as it will be cheaper.

Graphics card.
PSU was already done (400W is a bit light for some of the better cards and definitely for more than one).
Take a look inside the case and see if you have space. The modern decent cards take up quite at bit and your board is BTX (larger than the more commonly used ATX but cables can go in all places and mess things up.
 

Agjsdfd

My title
OP
Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
1,205
Trophies
0
Age
114
Location
Arctica
XP
255
Country
FAST6191 said:
Some thoughts, next time build a machine as it gives you far more control over things and also means you can put good things in there (dell, hp and the rest have very tight margins and they cut corners wherever they can).

2 gigs of ram is fine for just about everything you will want to do (once again my games, video and cad (all high end work too) runs fine on 2 gigs), looking at CPUz shots you gave it is clocked at a reasonable speed and has fairly tight timings. If and when the time comes to upgrade do it then as it will be cheaper.

Graphics card.
PSU was already done (400W is a bit light for some of the better cards and definitely for more than one).
Take a look inside the case and see if you have space. The modern decent cards take up quite at bit and your board is BTX (larger than the more commonly used ATX but cables can go in all places and mess things up.
I have lots of free space inside
smile.gif
. Also it doesnt look too complicated inside, because I never changed anything inside, neither I touched it.
So what are you suggestions?
I am not looking into building a new PC,(not until mid 2010). So what could I do to make the best out of this one? I am Happy if I can play UT3 on acceptable settings
smile.gif
 

Raki

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2008
Messages
554
Trophies
0
XP
98
Country
Gambia, The
ah...so BTX is larger than ATX?! I always thought it's smaller

@kamui Oh I have the older Pentium D Smithfield 830 manufactured as 90 nm Processor
but my RAM is rated as 533 atm because it's cheap 533 siemens (never thought they would produce RAM lol) RAM
my motherboard is a derivate of a MSI board (OEM stuff...meh) which should work with 667 MHz
But this board is shit...a USB controller does malfunction, so I cannot use my wlan (which is internally soldered to a USB port) and a USB bay for my external drive
 

Scorpei

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Messages
1,295
Trophies
0
Website
scorpei.com
XP
263
Country
Netherlands
Raki said:
well this is a good question to ask because I have a PC with similar specs
BTX mainboard (w/ intel p945 chipset)
3 GHz Pentium D
1 GB DDR2 533 MHz (the MB should be able to handle up to 667 MHz...dunno why they just built in 533 MHz RAM)
Geforce 6700XL (slightly faster than a 6600GT)
400 W PSU

I'm considering upgrading the video card and the RAM, but as cheap as possible and it should fit this BTX housing
Ur PSU would as stated probably need a little update. As for your ram you could add another gig or 2 (though 2 will probably rip it out of dual channel, depending on the setup you have now), going 667 probably isn't worth it though, I'd just get a cheaper stick of 1gb 553 (assuming you have 1 in there right now) and be done with it. Those should go quite cheap. As for the videocard, it's more up to budget then anything else. A 4850 should probably be pretty sweet in there, more could still add value but I'm not sure at what point it will outperform your ram / cpu so that it will simply be idling while waiting for them.

As for building in 553 instead of 667, it's cheaper
wink.gif
.
 

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
    Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy: oh shit where??? :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: