The Itch To Upgrade.

[Adam91]

Hi everyone,

I bought a new dell studio (540) and I love it. However, I really wanted to build my own rig, so instead I doing that, I just want to upgrade my own system for awhile.

Here are the stock specs.


Intel Core 2 Quad - Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz
4 Gig Ram
Nividia 9800GT

The computer is running great. It did crash twice playing WoW, but that is over with. What are some upgrades I could do to make it run stronger?

Thanks

 

[rohan23]

Nothing really. You're pretty much set for a while. You could buy a new motherboard and heatsink and overclock your processor.

 

[Adam91]

I didn't want to to do anything with the motherboard, maybe help it cool better?

I'm just bored, and I have to upgrade anything and everything I have.

 

[Cabbs]

How loud is it? If you have to upgrade it, I'd do cooling or grab some more hard drives for extra storage space.

 

[Celegorm]

You could buy a new motherboard and heatsink and overclock your processor.

My experience says that'll be harder than you'd think. The dell's I've worked with in similar cases had proprietary power/led connectors so you were forced to either mod the connectors or stick with a dell MB.

 

[jikifreak]

My experience says that'll be harder than you'd think. The dell's I've worked with in similar cases had proprietary power/led connectors so you were forced to either mod the connectors or stick with a dell MB.

True, but some Dells have standard ATX power connectors. Its only the HARD DRIVE that is annoying to migrate to new NON-Dell MOBO's. I upgraded my bosses PC's that were Dell dimension Celeron based systems, to Athlon 7750's and I had to transfer files and settings to get stuff off the HDD

 

[pepzsoduh]

maybe get another graphics cards and sli if you have another pcie in your mobo, or maybe get 2 more gigs of RAM or something

 

[Grantofhell]

Nothing really. You're pretty much set for a while. You could buy a new motherboard and heatsink and overclock your processor.

Rohan, You talk about wanting to neg rep that guy for suggesting the 4890 atomic for a workstation. And here you are talking about "overclocking a Dell". Really?

I would buy an aftermarket cooler anyways. Just be sure it's the stock S775 design holes. Dell does weird things with their computers for absolutely no good reason.

 

[Cabbs]

Rohan, You talk about wanting to neg rep that guy for suggesting the 4890 atomic for a workstation. And here you are talking about "overclocking a Dell". Really?

It's called replacing the motherboard as he mentioned in his post. That's the only thing keeping you from overclocking a Dell or any other pre-built PC with a locked BIOS unless you can find a BIOS with overclocking settings unlocked.

 

[Kage]

If you game a lot, the only thing I can think of, is a better graphics card, but it seems like your not stressing about slow down's, etc.
Plus, these pre-built machines don't tend to have much in the way of a great power supply. They tend to be built to just about withstand the pressure being exerted on them.