On Wed, 2006-09-06 at 20:54 -0700, Grant wrote: > I've got a Celeron 700 Dell desktop and I'd like to upgrade the CPU if > I can. What type of CPU should I look for? How can I tell what will > be compatible?
from memory that would be either a slot 1 or socket 370. The slot 1 looks like a rectangular riser board, with the CPU soldered on it. Quite often they had a heat-sink (usually a big one) and no fan. The socket 370 is a square CPU that usually just plugs onto the motherboard as usual. Either way, you probably want to go for a Pentium III. Unfortunately, Dell do their best to make sure you can't update your hardware with standard non-Dell parts :o, and since I've only ever done this to a non-Dell PC, YMMV! There is a small chance it's a Pentium-4 based Celeron, but I think they started at the mid 1.x GHz - someone else can correct me here. The Celeron 700 was a 66MHz FSB, at a 10.5 multiplier[1], so if your board can do 133MHz, I think you can get a 1.3GHz PIII... not sure. Depending on your board, frequency multiplier, etc, it may only take up to a 933MHz CPU, or if it supports Tualatin it may go above 1 GHz (but not by all that much). More info needed here - look in your bios or provide us with the dell model number. Given that it's an older board, I'd go for the fastest CPU you can get, which is hopefully a Pentium III 133MHz FSB. Given that the Pentium III 600 outperformed the Celeron 700[2], I'd say a nice PIII 933 would make a marked improvement!! If it doesn't support Tualatin, you can get a used working 933/133 Socket 370 for about AU$25 off ebay. You can get a used working Slot 1, PIII 933/133 for about AU$35 depending on availability at the time. I don't know the Tualatin prices, because I never looked for one! (my old boards don't support it)... Anyway, you will have to go to ebay or something like that, cause I don't know if anyone stocks them, unless you find a good 2nd hand computer store. > Also, how can I tell what kind of memory would be compatible? again, more info needed. Have a look in your bios and see what it says about your memory. If it was a desktop Dell, it's probably standard SDRAM, 100 or 133 MHz. Don't know if you can buy this stuff new anymore - may have to go to ebay again. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Celeron_microprocessors [2] http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1264&p=6 HTH, and is accurate! -- Iain Buchanan <iaindb at netspace dot net dot au> It's always darkest just before the lights go out. -- Alex Clark -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
