Maxing out an old Family PC

[BenjiDude]

Hey so I have a dell dimension 4550. It’s mother board # is 0M0321. I have been trying to find information about it and have had no luck. I want to max motherboard out. I don’t know how to get the latest bios, or even find what hardware it’s compatible with. I have 1 gb of ram but I’ve heard about 2 gb working. I have a pentium 4 but I want to know if there’s a better cpu. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Are you doing this for fun or are you actually gonna use it?

Budget?

Country?

(If you actually wanna use it) Uses?

 

If you are gonna use it then just buy a 2nd-4th gen optiplex for 100$ or something, will obliterate that dell dimension even if upgraded, if retro gaming then just get a c2d cause those have best performance for retro gaming stuff

 

If you are just having some fun with it then idk cause looking at hwbot 845pe is complete garbage, i dont think even a voltmod will save it. No fun toying around with old platforms if you cant overclock the balls off em imo

[ET_Explorer]

Drivers > https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/dimension-4550/drivers

 

Information > Supported CPU(s)
Intel Celeron Processor
Intel Pentium 4 Processor

 

Supported Memory Standard(s)
PC-2100 (DDR-266)
PC-2700 (DDR-333)
PC-3200 (DDR-400)

 

Maximum Installed Memory
2 GB

 

https://microdream.co.uk/dell-dimension-4550-0m0321-m0321-socket-478-motherboard.html

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

24 minutes ago, BenjiDude said:

Hey so I have a dell dimension 4550. It’s mother board # is 0M0321. I have been trying to find information about it and have had no luck. I want to max motherboard out. I don’t know how to get the latest bios, or even find what hardware it’s compatible with. I have 1 gb of ram but I’ve heard about 2 gb working. I have a pentium 4 but I want to know if there’s a better cpu. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

 

Officially it's 1GB according to the manual. As for the CPU, you'll be limited to Pentium 4s with a 533 FSB with no official compatibility chart that I can find. My best guess for the highest upgrade is this: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/27499/intel-pentium-4-processor-supporting-ht-technology-3-06-ghz-512k-cache-533-mhz-fsb.html.

 

 

 

Source: https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_desktop_legacy/dimension-4550_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

[Queen Chrysalis]

43 minutes ago, BenjiDude said:

Hey so I have a dell dimension 4550. It’s mother board # is 0M0321. I have been trying to find information about it and have had no luck. I want to max motherboard out. I don’t know how to get the latest bios, or even find what hardware it’s compatible with. I have 1 gb of ram but I’ve heard about 2 gb working. I have a pentium 4 but I want to know if there’s a better cpu. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

For the money you'd end up spending you'd be better off just hitting craigslist of fb marketplace and getting anything core-i or newer for as cheap as possible.  Anything core-i should run windows, a browser, office, or 2d games just fine when paired with the cheapest ssd you can get for the OS and office.  

 

I got my mom an HP with a 4570, 2x4GB RAM, and a 1TB HDD for $40 for mother's day (was using personal laptop for work) and added another 2x4GB RAM from an old PC (same speed and brand magically) and a 120GB SSD for $15, so $55 total and she uses it every day for work as a senior accountant without issues. 

 

If this is just for fun and you're stuck with the pentium try a lightweight operating system.  I used puppy (i'm sure there are newer alternatives) for years on a 1st gen atom with 1gb of ram and it ran at the speed of a click for web, docs, and such. 

[BenjiDude]

On 5/22/2022 at 2:15 AM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

 

Officially it's 1GB according to the manual. As for the CPU, you'll be limited to Pentium 4s with a 533 FSB with no official compatibility chart that I can find. My best guess for the highest upgrade is this: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/27499/intel-pentium-4-processor-supporting-ht-technology-3-06-ghz-512k-cache-533-mhz-fsb.html.

 

 

 

Source: https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_desktop_legacy/dimension-4550_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

Thank you, I have been searching around for this exact cpu. I’ll let you know if I get ahold of one. I also have purchased two 1gb sticks of ram and I’ll also tell whether or not they work once they get here. 
I also wanted to ask what my limits on gpu compatibility would be? Is it the just the operating system or also the motherboard?

 

On 5/22/2022 at 2:15 AM, BlueChinchillaEatingDorito said:

 

Officially it's 1GB according to the manual. As for the CPU, you'll be limited to Pentium 4s with a 533 FSB with no official compatibility chart that I can find. My best guess for the highest upgrade is this: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/27499/intel-pentium-4-processor-supporting-ht-technology-3-06-ghz-512k-cache-533-mhz-fsb.html.

 

 

 

Source: https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_desktop_legacy/dimension-4550_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

Thank you, I have been trying to get one of these and it’s proving a bit difficult. I’ll let you know if I get my hands on one. I was also planning on getting a cheap 250 gb sad with a SATA to IED bridge board. I have also purchased two 1 gb sticks of ram and I’ll update on whether or not they work.

Also, what would be the limiting factors on a gpu? Would it be the operating system or also the motherboard?

 

[BenjiDude]

OP here: my current power supply is max 250watts output.  Would this be enough for an ATI Radeon X1300? 

[BenjiDude]

Just a couple ice that might help find the best gpu. The one in my hand is a nvidia p300