Dell Dimension 3000

[JEWilson]

I got two of these for my bro's family
They work ok excepting they are stock specified with;
1. 2 of PC2700 256MB dual channel
2. 1 of PIV 2.8GHz non-HT CPU

I need the lowdown on what is possible with these PCs in terms
of an easy upgrade. The Dell support site is useless any
only states, CPU up 3.2GHz with HT support (no steppings) as
well as FSB 800MHz (can run PC3200 in dual channel)

I believe the mobo is Intel 865GV (with graphics port)
These won't be used for games.

So...
I got an updated BIOS from the Dell website as well as drivers but don't
know how to decompress the image and read with Pheonix BIOS editor
to check for cpu codes as well as to update cpu codes as required.

Also, if I opt for a CPU upgrade I suspect a new HSF will be in order.
Next, PSU. These are Dell 250W and I believe are proprietary.
Can a member confirm this to be the case?

Could I took a 400W PSU, recap and mod it to run with this system?
In terms of a recap, are these suspect to bad caps?

Thanks in advance for any/all info supplied.

[Wizard]

Re: Dell Dimension 3000

Go with Northwood P4 (denoted as 2.4C, 2.6C, 2.8C, 3.0C and 3.2C. Which are all HT. If the Dell heatsink have heatpipes, no need to change it.

DDR 1GB sticks are expensive anywhere, make sure they are 16 chips or 8 chips.

The BIOS is self-executing package, unpack it, put it on floppy or reboot to DOS mode or from a CD but still in dos prompt and run it, some have directions saying how to perform this BIOS update task.

2.8GHz is more than sufficient for light tasks (email, web, PDFing and old games). Do these machine come equipped with AGP slot? If does not have AGP slot, take a pass on them. You have to need the AGP slot to plug a decent video card as your relatives will want to game old stuff or do complex graphics.

If all conditions met, definately recap the Vcore caps with polymers or top-shelf caps and 4 small 100uF in a row (roughly) near the northbridge. This is where these small caps filters the 1.5V GTL supplies. they were put in with 25V rating, change them to 220uF 6.3V low ESR if you can find them.

Cheers, Wizard

[momaka]

Re: Dell Dimension 3000

I have a Dell Dimension 3000 and I must say they're well-built and good for general stuff and older DirectX 7 and 8 based games.

Just upgrade the ram to 1GB PC3200 and leave everything else as is.
And maybe if you really felt like it, put a small fan on the NB heatsink (or change the heatsink altogether) because the stock one does get hot. I have a 40mm fan on mine running at 5v all the time, and it fits perfectly on the heatsink.

Personally I don't think it's worth the CPU upgrade as you won't get that much of a difference even with the best P4 CPUs out there. Since you said the computer won't be used for gaming, I suppose there's no need for a new graphics card either. Besides, there's PCI slots only and PCI video cards aren't that cheap.

If I remember correctly, caps for the low side of VRM were all solids and rest of the caps were Rubycon (probably MCZ or MBZ) and a few Nichicon HMs (05 datecodes I believe).

Power supply seems to be standard ATX. Most of these are made by Delta (sometimes rebranded as Newton Power) and are well-built. Should be adequate for that computer anyways. Just clean it up if there's any dust inside before putting it back in.

The only complaint I have about those Dimension 3000s is that there's not enough vents on the front of the case. When the case gets warmer, the 90mm CPU/system exhaust fan turns it's speed up and starts to fight for air with the PSU fan. Result is they both keep turning up and getting louder.
I've solved this issue on mine by opening the side panel of the case and just leaning it on the case so that its bottom is a few inches away from the case. Fans are always turning at their lowest speed that way and everything is quiet.
But I guess this is something you can't really do for someone else's computer. Adding vents on the side might help, though, and it definitely shouldn't look as ghetto as an open case.