Is it possible to upgrade the cpu of a Dell Dimension XPS R400 ?

[Judoman]

I built a T-Bird system for a friend, who gave me his old system as partial trade. I was wondering if I could swap in a 100mhz P3 (750, 800), in place of the P2 400, or maybe an overclocked Celeron II ? SiSoft says it`s an Intel MB, with a BX chipset. Anyone else had any luck with this?

 

[Vincent]

Try looking at Dell's website. They have really good documentation for all of their systems.

 

[Judoman]

Already checked- they say it is possible to install faster cpu`s, but "we don`t recommend it". I was trying to find someone who had actually done it. Thanks Vincent.

 

[SerraYX]

If you can flash the BIOS of the motherboard to handle higher clock speed CPUs, I don't think it would be very hard.

Oops, just noticed P2 400 and P3 1000, maybe someone with more BX knowledge could tell us if the two are interchangable.

 

[Rand]

You could definitely put in a P2 450MHz processor or a Mendocino based Celeron up to 533MHz on a slotket. The R450 Dell system used the same mobo.
Most likely with a BIOS update the board would be compatible with a Katmai based Pentium 3 up to 600MHz.

I suggest you look through the Dell documentation on the system to find out exactly what motherboard is in there and from there I could give you information on whether it would support Coppermine based Pentium 3/Celeron processors.

 

[Hard_Boiled]

Yup you can stick just about any P3 in there, my XPS R400 took a P3 850 FC-PGA on a slotket. Apply the latest bios update first of course.

There is just one catch, anything past a P3 750 will not be shown correctly in the bios screen. My P3 850 showed up as a Pentium Pro 500. That being said, I've been told and do believe that it is not a problem, it truly is running at 850. And yes just make sure you get 100MHZ fsb variety. Probably best to stick with slot 1 also, even though a slotket does work.

 

[HomerSapien]

If it shows something other than what you have, test it out with RC5. Compare the results you get with the results that you are supposed to get. Distributed.net

 

[Judoman]

Thanks for the info guys. Hard_Boiled, I downloaded the latest bios from Dell`s site, and will be shopping for a cheap P3 soon. I saw the post in the Hot Deals forum about the oem P3900`s, but can`t afford to spend $200.00 right now. Thanks again.