Upgrade Dimension 8300 processor?

[Humboldt]

My friend just bought a Dell Dimension 8300, loves it, but is curious what processor the motherboard will max at.

Able to find reviews but no specs or upgrade potential.

Any ideas where to look appreciated.
Thanks

[Cypher]

I'm not sure he can Humby.
I know in the Dell I had the features you would use were disabled.
Calling Dell support was how I found out what the max CPU it would allow.
Look in the Bios and if you see a way to adjust the FSB or other similar options.

[V_LESTAT]

yup i agree dell gateway and pretty much all OEM pc makers lock their bios's for overclocking. if thats what your going after.

but make a quick call to tech support and they will be happy to let you know what cpu's the motherboard supports.

[RoundEye]

What is the service tag number? It's usually on a White sticker on the back of the PC.

[V_LESTAT]

service tag number, hhm so thats what dell calls a serial number ? lol

yeah it should be there ot another sticker somewhere, if not there then they should be able to find all your information with simply your name and or telephone number.
also look at your invoice if you still have it, and i hope you do.

[Richard_UK]

what CPU is in it now?

(i also have 8300) if he has the OE motherboard then NOTHING can be adjusted, trust me ive tried, mine came with the P4 3.4ghz chip.

in the end i changed the board.

[Faust]

what you;d need to do is ID the mainboard chipset. it;s /probably/ some flavor of Intel board with a Dell or Dell modded BIOS. if you can find out what chipset it is, then you would have some idea of what the CPU speed cieling is.

if i were a guessin' man, i would venture to say that the BIOS may have a locked FSB speed, but will auto-detect the CPUs rated clock speed (may also auto-detect the FSB speed and self-configure). it's actually cheaper and easier for an OEM to have the same mainboard/BIOS across a specific line of computers, rather than have unique hardware for each different system. that way, all they have to do is plop in whatever CPU they want (or the customer wants) and it;s all set. no extra time spent setting it up, and no extra money spent on smaller batches of different mainboards rather than one large amount of money for one large lot of mainboards (they pay less per unit by doing this).

the biggest concern when it comes to OEM systems is that sometimes their custom BIOS will look for a certain key string in/on the devices in the system (this can be anything... memory, optical drives, vidcard, etc)... this key or string is usually in the devices own BIOS or SPD EEPROM. if the device doesn;t have it, the mainboard won;t communicate with it. not all OEMs do this, and it has become less common for it to be used, but it;s still a possibility.

anyways, i don;t want to give a definite answer as to whether putting in a retain CPU will work or not. what i would do is call Dell and find out if it;s possible to upgrade the CPU in the system. they may want you to buy from them, but at least you will know what the possibilities are. then, if you want to experiment, just buy a CPU at the max speed the mainboard will support and try it. just be sure to buy it from a place that will allow you to return it if it doesn;t work.

[YARDofSTUF]

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/product ... l=en&s=dfh


Looks like the Dimension 8300 can take upto 3.4ghz

[Boltonlad]

If you cant find your service Tag you can get Dell to scan your computer for it but only with Explorer, also if you have an express service Tag it will not let you enter the full number of the Tag. thought you might find this useless piece of information mildly helpfull.

[Sava700]

If you cant find your service Tag you can get Dell to scan your computer for it but only with Explorer, also if you have an express service Tag it will not let you enter the full number of the Tag. thought you might find this useless piece of information mildly helpfull.

This thread is 6 years old..

[CableDude]