Slot 1 Upgrade

Hello all,

First, yes, I did check the forum for similar threads before posting. I entered "slot 1" and "slot 1 upgrade". I checked many of the threads but did not find what I was looking for, so I thought it would be more efficient to start a new thread.

Also, thanks in advance to anyone with advice...it's usually been extremely helpful.

Long story short, I have an old Dell XPS T850 that I would like to speed up/upgrade.

Specs:
CPU - Pentium 3 850 MHZ (slot 1)
MOBO - Intel Seattle 2 SE440BX
RAM - 3 slots, limited to 256mb sticks, 100MHZ FSB
- 2 x 256mb = 512 MB SDRAM currently
- Just bought 1 more stick from ebay, so this will be maxed
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4600 (128MB)

I use it to do 3D renduring for my CAD and computer graphics courses and to play video games. It's not too fast. (This also includes playing music, video, and internet browsing). I would like to improve its' performance, in part due to a game I just got that has minnimum requirements of a P3 1GHZ and 256MB RAM. RAM's sufficient, and I'm sure the processor will work, but, wouldn't mind a little extra speed.

The best way to go would be to get a new pc. I am planning on building a new pc in the future...say this summer or next fall as I accumulate funds and (really) when I have the time to put it together and do the research and the shopping for it. Also, I will most likely start with a fresh install of my programs...etc...on the new pc...something i don't have time for during the semester which begins in less than a week.

Ideally, I would like to just pop in a new cpu. I'm happy with the graphics card. I don't see the point in popping in a new one, especially when the pickings in AGP 2x would most likely be too exspensive and thin at this point.

I've done a little research and my options are pretty slim. It's either a 933MHZ or 1GHZ slot 1 P3 (the former...I'm not sure if it's worth the exspense and the latter is just rare or exspensive). I have thought about an adapter but I have some concerns. First, if I buy an adapter, CPU, and heatsink, will it ultimately cost so much to not make it worth it? I would like to keep the investment under $100 and as close to $50 as possible. Also, I have read on this web site that they can be buggy...without an explanation to what this might mean. I don't want to fry my mobo.

Well, any thoughts from anyone would be appreciated...especially from anyone who has done this before and can share their experiences. (Maybe someone from Ohio has something to sell?...or someone knows someone from Ohio that would like to meet up and sell?)

Mike

 

I'd just bite the bullet and get a new system. Even if you did get a new 1GHz CPU it's not going to be that much of a performance boost.

 

Yeah, that would be me that was doing the slot 1 upgrade. You have to see what clock multipliers your mobo is capable of. Gotta do research. I just upgraded a 200MHZ P2, to a 500MHZ P3 slot Processor. (It was the most the mobo could upgrade to). Got the 500 processor for a buck on ebay, with $6 shipping. They had a lot of slot processors there when I looked, and pretty cheap. The're definately not in any demand, so you can get a good deal on one.
As for those converter things to put in a PGA type processor.........I only know what I researched. Found a lot of mixed opinions on them. But I saw plenty of those on ebay cheap too. A lot of them included the processor chip.

 

Adaptors aren't worth the money or effort, and can be very buggy.

There will be a performance benefit, but certainly not enough to justify.

Either build a new one, or put up with the current one till you do.

 

"Adaptors aren't worth the money or effort, and can be very buggy.
There will be a performance benefit, but certainly not enough to justify.
Either build a new one, or put up with the current one till you do."

"I'd just bite the bullet and get a new system. Even if you did get a new 1GHz CPU it's not going to be that much of a performance boost."

I have to agree with your comments. I'm going to wait and build a new system as I can, slowly, and live with what I have until then. Thanks for the advice. I got excited about upgrading. It took cooler heads to calm my enthusiasm.

Mike