Dell Dimension 8300 - upgrade help !

[Amaru-Synergy]

well Im looking to upgrade my PC as it appears to be slow even after a full reformat and everything toned down... bought in 2003

only use computer for internet and daoc ! so here are my specifications

what do I urgently need to speed up things, and rough costs.....?
what type of memory am i looking at?
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Pent 4 - 2.60 gig 1gig of sd ramm is all I know Oo Computer was bought top of range in 2003 now its clearly bottem



General System Information

Service Tag 2WPCS0J
Computer Model Dimension 8300
BIOS Vendor Dell Computer Corporation
BIOS Version A01
BIOS Date 04/28/2003
Case Type Mini Tower
Windows Version XP
Explorer Version 6.0.2900.2180


Processors

Central Processor
Manufacturer Intel
External Clock Speed 800 MHz
Maximum Clock Speed 3060 MHz
Current Clock Speed 2600 MHz


Memory

System memory
DIMM: 256 Mb SDRAM
DIMM: 256 Mb SDRAM
DIMM: 512 Mb SDRAM
DIMM

Windows Memory/Resources
Total Memory 1047548 Kb
Available Memory 673656 Kb
Page File Size 2520680 Kb
Available Page File 2223556 Kb
Virtual Memory 2097024 Kb
Available Virtual Memory 1935540 Kb


Hardware (Built Into System)
Type Description Enabled
Ethernet Intel Pro 100 VE Network Connection Yes
sound, video, and game controllers AC'97 Audio Controller Yes

Hardware (Added On To System)
Type Description Manufacturer
DVD/CD-ROM drives LITEON DVD-ROM LTD163 (Standard CD-ROM drives)
SAMSUNG CD-R/RW SW-248F (Standard CD-ROM drives)
Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device (Standard CD-ROM drives)
disk drives ST380011A (Standard disk drives)
WDC WD800AB-00CBA0 (Standard disk drives)
display adapters RADEON 9800 PRO ATI Technologies Inc.
RADEON 9800 PRO - Secondary ATI Technologies Inc.
floppy disk controllers Standard floppy disk controller (Standard floppy disk controllers)
floppy disk drives Floppy disk drive (Standard floppy disk drives)
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Primary IDE Channel (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Secondary IDE Channel (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Primary IDE Channel (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
Secondary IDE Channel (Standard IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers)
keyboards Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard (Standard keyboards)
mice and other pointing devices PS/2 Compatible Mouse Microsoft
monitors Dell 1504FP (Analog) Dell Computer Corp.
Dell 1504FP (Digital) Dell Computer Corp.
network adapters Intel® PRO/100 VE Network Connection Intel
WAN Miniport (L2TP) Microsoft
WAN Miniport (IP) Microsoft
WAN Miniport (PPPOE) Microsoft
WAN Miniport (PPTP) Microsoft
WAN Miniport (IP) - Packet Scheduler Miniport Microsoft
Virtual USB Network Adapter - Packet Scheduler Miniport Microsoft
Direct Parallel Microsoft
USB Cable Modem 351000 brand
ports ECP Printer Port (LPT1) (Standard port types)
Communications Port (COM1) (Standard port types)
SCSI and RAID controllers D347PRT SCSI Controller (Standard mass storage controllers)
sound, video, and game controllers Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device Microsoft
Creative SB Live! Series (WDM) Creative Technology Ltd.
Game Port for SB Live! Series Creative
Audio Codecs (Standard system devices)
Legacy Audio Drivers (Standard system devices)
Media Control Devices (Standard system devices)
Legacy Video Capture Devices (Standard system devices)
Video Codecs (Standard system devices)
Microsoft Kernel Audio Splitter Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel Acoustic Echo Canceller Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel GS Wavetable Synthesizer Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel DLS Synthesizer Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel System Audio Device Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel Wave Audio Mixer Microsoft
Microsoft WINMM WDM Audio Compatibility Driver Microsoft
Microsoft Kernel DRM Audio Descrambler Microsoft
USB controllers Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (Standard USB Host Controller)
Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (Standard USB Host Controller)
Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (Standard USB Host Controller)
Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (Standard USB Host Controller)
Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Root Hub (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Root Hub (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Root Hub (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Root Hub (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Root Hub (Standard USB Host Controller)
USB Printing Support Microsoft


Disks
Drive Type Drive Size Total
Available
Space User
Available
Space
A:\ removable
C:\ fixed 76285 Mb 45725 Mb 45725 Mb
D:\ fixed 76316 Mb 36718 Mb 36718 Mb
E:\ CD ROM 335 Mb 0 Mb 0 Mb
F:\ CD ROM
G:\ CD ROM

MEMORY ??
--------------------
DDR DIMMs 266 MHz (PC2100):
Suitable for Athlon (Socket A) & compatible Pentium 4 motherboards.
128 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £12.99 SAVE £27
256 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £19.99 SAVE £30
512 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £27.99 STAR BUY


DDR DIMMs 333 MHz (PC2700):
Suitable for Athlon (Socket A) & compatible Pentium 4 motherboards. 128 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £14.99 SAVE £25
256 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £19.99 SAVE £30
512 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £28.99 SAVE £11


DDR DIMMs 400 MHz (PC3200):
Suitable for Athlon (Socket A) & compatible Pentium 4 motherboards. 256 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £14.99 SAVE £35
512 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £26.99 SAVE £33
1024 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £65.99 STAR BUY


DDR2 DIMMs 533 MHz (PC4300):
Suitable for Athlon (Socket A) & compatible Pentium 4 motherboards. 256 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £32.99 SAVE £37
512 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £57.99 SAVE £42
1024 MB DDR DIMM SDRAM ONLY £154.99 SAVE £15


RIMM RDRAM (PC800): Only suitable for Pentium 4 systems: 128 MB PC800 RIMM RDRAM ONLY £37.99 SAVE £12
256 MB PC800 RIMM RDRAM ONLY £60.99 SAVE £39


SDRAM DIMMs 100MHz (168 Pin): For 700 MHz or slower CPUs. 100% backwards compatible with
66MHz systems:
128 MB 100 MHz DIMM SDRAM ONLY £17.99 SAVE £22
256 MB 100MHz DIMM SDRAM ONLY £23.99 STAR BUY


SDRAM DIMMs 133MHz (168 Pin): For 733 MHz or faster CPUs:

128 MB 133MHz DIMM SDRAM ONLY £17.99 SAVE £22
256 MB 133MHz DIMM SDRAM ONLY £26.99 STAR BUY
512 MB 133MHz DIMM SDRAM ONLY £49.99 STAR BUY

 

[Ctuchik]

only thing i can see that u would acually need to get better is the CPU. everything else looks pretty good for its age...

so i'd start with a new CPU and see if that sorts the speed out. and i'm almost certain it will.

 

[MaLk]

Errh... He has a 2.6 Ghz CPU, that should be more than enough to play DaoC and surf the internet

Actually I cant really see what should be making it slow... Its better than my comp and I dont have any problems Only thing I see is that u are using SD ram, which is crap. Does your Motherboard support DDR RAM? or even better DDRII RAM? Think 1 gb of DDR ram instead of what ya have now would solve the problem.

 

[Nerve]

He's using DDR, which is also a type of SDRam... You are referring to oldschool SDRam that doesn't even fit on his board...

And as already stated, your config is fine, if it's slow there's something else going on.

Errh... He has a 2.6 Ghz CPU, that should be more than enough to play DaoC and surf the internet

Actually I cant really see what should be making it slow... Its better than my comp and I dont have any problems Only thing I see is that u are using SD ram, which is crap. Does your Motherboard support DDR RAM? or even better DDRII RAM? Think 1 gb of DDR ram instead of what ya have now would solve the problem.

 

[Coolan]

Malk ddr2 lets just put that down as a not a chance in hell, but if hes lucky then yeah maybe ddr but i doubt it, if it has 4slots for sdram the likely hood is that it wont have both on it.

 

[MaLk]

He's using DDR, which is also a type of SDRam... You are referring to oldschool SDRam that doesn't even fit on his board...

lol, u right must be the heat getting to my head was actually refering to old school SD ram, but reading specs again, I see that im wrong...

But then again DDR is still faster than SDR but probably something else wrong as u said

 

[[SS]Gamblor]

well depends on the spead of the ram.
he could be using 2 different speeds of ram, and that will make allthe ram run at the lowest speed.

I've the same type a Dim 8300 , but :

P4 3.2
512 mb DDr400 ram
128 gfx ( FX5200 Geforce) - it also runs CS : source not a problem can always over clock if i need to.

120 gig hdd with a 250 gig drive inc in it's place.

I'm using hyperthreading but that doesn't effect the game at all

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now what i will be doing is upgrading the ammount of mem to 1 gig, but making sure the mem is all the same spead .. 400 mhz.
they way i have my os installed i can give a few AMD's a run for thier money :touch:

 

[Nerve]

.

I'm using hyperthreading but that doesn't effect the game at all

It does if you run 2 accounts on the same PC.

 

[Commandment]

It does if you run 2 accounts on the same PC.

whats hyperthreading ? ;p

 

[[SS]Gamblor]

It does if you run 2 accounts on the same PC.

well nothing that iv'e seen.
if anything it might be my problem. I've can't seem to keep both up and switch between them, if i do then the 1 i switch to will LD .

real pain :/

as for hyperthreading, it's when the system can run as if it has 2 Proc's in the machine .. sort of like a software Dual proc.

I know that isn't excatly what it is, but it gives you a general idea of what it is about.