I purchased a Dell Dimension 2400 awhile back and I've been pretty happy with it. However, there is no AGP slot on the motherboard I was wondering if it would be possible to replace this motherboard with a Dimension 4600 motherboard which does have an agp slot. Both computers use the same case and I'm not sure about power supply. My current setup is a P4 2.2 and 512mb ram and integrated video which I hate. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks
You'd be overpaying so much to buy a new motherboard from Dell it'd be very hard to justify (if they would even allow it). You could get a motherboard that's not Dell-branded (read: less expensive, better quality). However, if Dell is keeping with their previous habits of making their power-supplies incompatible with standard ATX motherboards, you'd have to replace the PSU as well. Not to mention the cost of the AGP video card... I hate to sound like a troll, but you would do very well for yourself to avoid Dell in the future.
I read the dell forums and discovered that it would work without a hitch. I have just purchased the items I want off ebay. Dell 4600 motherboard 35.00 using buy it now...lucky Radeon 9700 pro 145.00 using buy it now...lucky 256mb ram...50 bucks...crucial.com...free shipping though so it wasn't very expensive at all really p4 2.2ghz 512mb ram 128mb Radeon 9700pro decent rig?
Awesome, you're really one of the lucky few. :good: I've worked with plenty of businesses and individuals who actually saved money by replacing Dells rather than upgrading them through Dell. Part of Dell's business model is set up on this principle. Well, bottom line, I'm glad everything worked out for you.
When everything arrives, will it be safe to just pop in the new motherboard, install the new ram, and install the new video card?...Should I reformat the hard-drive or just reinstall my os?...I'm not sure what I need to do.
It's a very good idea to do a backup of any data you have accumulated (read: My Documents, etc). Make 2 backups of important data. Don't worry about software though; that can always be reinstalled. Once you've got that out of the way, I'd opt for a clean install. It's always better, and always less complicated. You might skate by with a MoBo swap and not reinstalling, but it's usually not even worth the bother. With a reinstall, you get a nice, clean (not hosed in any way) OS to start with. It's also much easier to troubleshoot potential hardware issues that way, because you don't have to wonder whether your system is crashing because the OS is hosed or the MoBo is bad. There you have it, my two cents. Do what you will.
I think I will do that...I have kept my computer very clean since I got it. All my media is actually in the seperate my documents folders...hehe. Thanks
