3.2GHz? That could be a D840 (130W), a D940 SL94Q (130W), a D940 SL95W (95W), or a D935 "95W", but the D0 stepping is more efficient than the D940 SL95W - if you have a 130W spec CPU you might want to upgrade to a D945, 95W in both C1 and D0 stepping (but probably lower in D0) and 200MHz more clock.
If you have 2x 512MB and a single 1GB, you can probably arrange the 2x 512 to fall in one channel and the 1GB on its own to get full dual channel, otherwise you would have 1Gb dual and the extra 1GB as single

You didn't mention what kind of performance you desire from an upgrade.

I recently did some testing of a 3.4GHz Pentium 4 and a Radeon HD 4850. The Pentium 4 was a serious bottleneck. I doubt there's all that much more you can get out of that system without a major overhaul. Maybe the motherboard can take a Core 2 CPU, but that's up to the BIOS.

I suspect that a motherboard/CPU/memory/GPU upgrade (assuming the Dell power supply is a standard ATX) would give you the best bang for the buck. But, which components would depend on what kind of performance you expect.

Ok, I just looked up your computer, and it looks like some kind of BTX system. That really limits your upgrade paths.

I'd recommend building a XP retro rocket instead of trying to upgrade your Dell. I doubt you can do much more with it.

You could trick it out the Dell with a slightly better Pentium D and maybe a Radeon HD 2900 XT (or Nvidia equivalent). I just don't think you'll really perceive a big difference.

Hmmm bummer of the day: while DXDiag says "2 CPUs" the sticker on the case says P4 HT, Windows says P4 3200 and Everest says it's a P4 type 640 prescott-2M. So a single core, 2 thread P4 HT? No dual core? Though everest recognizes a cpu 0 and cpu 1, but I think those again are threads, not cores?

There is 2x 512mb DDR2 installed. I think I have another 512 laying around, so no perfect match for dual mode.

So it seems like I'm quite limited by the existing hardware. I could slam a killer gpu in it, but the processor would be limiting (and the currect 2600 pro is no slough).

The performance I'm after is playing the pile of games shown smoothly. I understand that might require a different oc altogether? If so, what kind of spec?

Hold up, I've got a Kingston 1gb and a 2gb DDR2 laying around. Kvr667d2n5/1g and /2g. So I could upgrade the ram, but I doubt that would put the rocket on the launch pad...

So, any generic pointers as to what kind of PC I should look out for to serve as an XP rocket (or firecracker, I want to do this on limited budget. Not like my W98 build)? I assume it would need a better gpu than the 2600 pro, so I can consider the entire Dell PC as obsolete for this project, bar maybe the Audigy?

I find some pointers in different threads here, but I find it difficult to search our local second hand sites as the PC's on offer don't talk about chipsets, architectures etc. Are we looking for a PC that came with XP, or something from W8 era? Some other generic pointers to the right kind of PC, such as amount/kind of RAM, what generations of GPU...Information that might be available in the local ads.

You can easily go up to a Haswell Core i7 for an almost hassle-free Windows XP install. You can go up to a GTX 980 Ti for the GPU with easy to modify XP drivers. I'm sure you could build a heck of a system to beat your Dell at almost any price point.

Thanks, I'll see if I can find anything by using those specs!

What do we think of this one, apart from the fact it's dirt cheap? 😀 You can see all the specs in the photos.

https://www.2dehands.be/v/computers-en-softwa … 2819-desktop-pc

-Runs Debian, but irrelevant as I'll install XP.
-AMD instead of intel, problem for compatibility? And fast enough, too slow, too fast?
-Radeon HD6850 seems XP compatible, good choice?
-onboard audio as far as I can see. I could always add the Audigy from the Dell.
-no idea about HDD and RAM, but given the age of the system, I'd assume plenty for an XP build?

My main XP Pocket Rocket is a Core 2 Quad Q9650 paired with a GTX 460. Overkill for any XP Game. if you wanted to save some money and stay dual core, the e8400 was sold by the millions, you can often find them for under $10 on ebay.

Also look for a GTX 250, they are rebranded 9800 GTX+ Cards and also overkill for just about any XP Game.

I have numerous XP Gaming Rigs, from Coppermine Pentium IIIs to the aforementioned 9650, and for general affordability and performance I really like the Core 2 series (have a couple e8400 builds too)

I'm trying to find a PC locally that already has all the good stuff inside, like (hopefully) the one I linked above. Otherwise, things quickly get too expensive for my taste with all the separate purchases and shipping costs. I don't have a lot of suitable hardware already here for this build, so I'd have to buy pretty much every component. So a cheap complete system would be far more cost effective.

Do you have thrift shops where you live? You might have luck finding something from the late 2000's to early 2010's. I find thrift stores tend to have PCs more commonly from that era these days.

Most thrift stores in Belgium don't ever have PC's (well they do, but they don't ever reach the client area, winkwink...) while in the Netherlands they do but I've yet to encounter a thrift store PC with anything resembling a performance GPU. Most are ex-school or ex-office PC's. So where I live, online is where it's at.

You don't really need much to make a powerful WinXP system. For the case and PSU, use something modern but cheap. Personally, I would grab a 650W PSU and a decent mesh case.

Regarding the internals, I suggest sticking to the Sandy/Ivy Bridge platform, since they are a bit easier to manage than Haswell. Find a motherboard from MSI or Asus, as they still have official WinXP drivers available on their respective websites. Pair that with an i5 3570 or something similar. For the GPU, I see no need to go below a GTX 9xx card. Pick the one that fits into your budget. You can reuse the Audigy for this system, but I suggest looking for an X-Fi card if you're into EAX games. And of course, for storage get a SATA SSD.

With that setup, you can comfortably run any game up to around 2012, using max graphical settings at 1080p while getting a locked 60 FPS.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-09-14, 20:59:

What do we think of this one, apart from the fact it's dirt cheap? :) You can see all the specs in the photos. […]
Show full quote

What do we think of this one, apart from the fact it's dirt cheap? 😀 You can see all the specs in the photos.

https://www.2dehands.be/v/computers-en-softwa … 2819-desktop-pc

-Runs Debian, but irrelevant as I'll install XP.
-AMD instead of intel, problem for compatibility? And fast enough, too slow, too fast?
-Radeon HD6850 seems XP compatible, good choice?
-onboard audio as far as I can see. I could always add the Audigy from the Dell.
-no idea about HDD and RAM, but given the age of the system, I'd assume plenty for an XP build?

Great opportunity, switch the cpu for a Phenom II (either X2 or X4), I would go with X2 honestly as they're more power efficient and plenty for XP gaming. Make sure it has 4GB at least (it should, it most likely has 8GB already)... Just put an SSD to install the OS, and then use the HDD to store the gamez! Cheers

I'd say that AMD system would be a significant upgrade over the Dell P4. I just looked at a review of the HD 6850, and it got 60 FPS in Crysis at 1024x768.

That system would probably offer an upgrade path to better GPUs, although it probably only has PCIE Gen 2 slots.

It's not best of breed, but, like I said, a huge upgrade over your current computer.

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-09-14, 20:00:

Hmmm bummer of the day: while DXDiag says "2 CPUs" the sticker on the case says P4 HT, Windows says P4 3200 and Everest says it's a P4 type 640 prescott-2M. So a single core, 2 thread P4 HT? No dual core? Though everest recognizes a cpu 0 and cpu 1, but I think those again are threads, not cores?

Yes P4 HT, my first XP system had a P4 640 and a Radeon X740XL - yup, it was a Medion MD8386.
Seems yours CAN take a Pentium D (mine was a 915 chipset that couldn't), and the D945 is about the sweet spot for pricing, the higher ones are ridiculous.
Dual versus HT? XP and XP software is not mightily multi-threaded, so the dual vs HT gains may be limited, in a pure test (7zip benchmark) HT got about 30% more, while an actual dual would get 80-90% more than single thread, but that is slam dunking the same workload across 2 threads, which HT really does not like as it's contending hard for ALU resources, on the other hand, I could have a malfunctioning process doing 100% on one thread and barely notice it, as it wasn't contending much for resources the other thread needed.

Not sure if an XP update ever fixed it, but I found the P4 640 could be reluctant to boost, settling at 2.8 rather than 3.2 - yeah speedstep didn't have a big range, so I used https://cpu.rightmark.org/products/rmclock.shtml - with the fiercest upshift settings possible, otherwise it seemed 100% single thread might not boost.

I was settling on a D945 for my AGP XP project, until I got a board that could do Core 2 AGP. Ah now there lies the thing, there are FAR superior platforms that can run XP with PCIE, any old Core 2 capable board, for instance, or an AMD Phenom (or FX, but XP won't optimize across the core clusters as it doesn't know the difference between threads and cores)

Looking at that pile of games - i do not immediately see anything that would require faster hardware, i may be wrong though.

XP covers huge range of hardware, anything from P2/P3 to LGA1155 and honestly i disagree with what many people are saying about building an overkill system right away. More... period correct hardware can be a lot of fun too, in many cases sufficient and sometimes - better. I have an overkill XP system (though it is not as powerful as some things suggested), i've encountered plenty of compatibility issues.

IMO - what you have is not bad at all. Try using it, perhaps do an upgrade or two. It will, most likely, be sufficient.

xelizor wrote on 2025-09-14, 22:26:

Nicolas 2000 wrote on 2025-09-14, 20:59:

What do we think of this one, apart from the fact it's dirt cheap? :) You can see all the specs in the photos. […]
Show full quote

What do we think of this one, apart from the fact it's dirt cheap? 😀 You can see all the specs in the photos.

https://www.2dehands.be/v/computers-en-softwa … 2819-desktop-pc

-Runs Debian, but irrelevant as I'll install XP.
-AMD instead of intel, problem for compatibility? And fast enough, too slow, too fast?
-Radeon HD6850 seems XP compatible, good choice?
-onboard audio as far as I can see. I could always add the Audigy from the Dell.
-no idea about HDD and RAM, but given the age of the system, I'd assume plenty for an XP build?

Great opportunity, switch the cpu for a Phenom II (either X2 or X4), I would go with X2 honestly as they're more power efficient and plenty for XP gaming. Make sure it has 4GB at least (it should, it most likely has 8GB already)... Just put an SSD to install the OS, and then use the HDD to store the gamez! Cheers

What would be the motivation for swapping out the current processor, is it too slow/too fast/incompatible? I understand winxp can't use the six cores very well, but how bad would it be compared to a phenom x2?

And, as I'm new to AMD, can a Phenom 2 be dropped into an FX socket?