On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 9:53 PM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
Lanny Marcus wrote:
(a) Mark (mhr) suggested I buy a bare bones box, when I reported the problem with the mainboard in this Dell Dimension 2400 box. ... The one that seems the most interesting is the Biostar P4M890-M7 TE (a Socket LGA 775 board). ...
The other mainboard is the MSI P6NGM-L (MS-7366 Ver. 1.0)....
the PSU in your Dimension 2400 (a celeron system with the i845gv chipset) may not work with a PCI-Express motherboard as they've changed hte PSU spec to require significantly more +12V than in older ATX designs. Also, Dell is fairly notorious for using PSUs that are just barely adequate for the system as originally configured.
John: Thank you, for your very quick reply! I know you are extremely knowledgeable. Much appreciated. If I buy a new motherboard, it will go into a new case, with a new CPU and 2 GB RAM (max is 4 GB). The PSU in this Dell Dimension 2400 is only 200 or 250 watts, and I suspect that may be part of the problem. Barely adequate, as you wrote. The new case I will buy has a 450 watt PSU as I recall. Something else I hate about this Dell Dimension 2400 box, and at least one other box we have, is there is no Reset switch on the Front Panel. I will get a case that has a Reset switch on it.
if you are going to try to upgrade/replace parts in that system, I'd consider getting a g33 based motherboard (intel dg33tl or equivalent) with a low end core2 chip such as the e2200, along with 2x1GB ddr2 533 or whatever. this would give you a system many times faster than the celeron 2.4ghz of the original, faster but similar onboard video, etc. you may end up needing a new PSU for this, but this combination would work with a very modest pci-express compatible PSU
I will ask about a g33 based motherboard, and a low end Core 2 chip, when I go back to the store, with this Dell Dimension 2400, for the mobo guy to see if he can fix it. He said he can also look at the PSU. I will wait until after New Years Day, to take it in, so they will be open and hopefully very sober....
fwiw, my current main desktop system is a DG33TL mobo + e8500 cpu + 2x2GB ddr2 800mhz, and its a seriously fast and stable system
Thank you again and Happy New Year! Lanny