Perfect machine for Windows XP!

GeForce 4, FX or 6 AGP. Audigy 2 ZS or X-Fi for 3D Audio over headphones (or surround speakers if you have such a setup).

LOTS of games to play. Far Cry, Call of Duty, Medal of Honour, Splinter Cell, Pandora Tomorrow...

Where'd you get one for free? I need a machine with 800 FSB 😜

Just curious Phil, did that board ever make it to you?

Got lucky. Old office machines sitting in the corner unused and collecting dust. I have seen many similar but these actually have AGP slots and not just onboard video. I'm going back soon to check the rest!

It also came with a Sound Blaster Live (sell on ebay) and a GeForce4 MX440 AGP8 video card. Might use that video card for a Direct X 7.0 Windows box in an Intel SE440BX-2 motherboard. It looks like it is keyed for 3.3 and 1.5 Volt slots.

squareguy wrote:

Just curious Phil, did that board ever make it to you?

Yes, still playing with it! Planning on doing a review for sure 😀

What is your take on it? Any interesting findings?

Mmmm... I think I posted everything I found in the original thread (Anyone have interest in buying a NOS 200MHz system?). I have been using one recently with onboard audio and video disabled and a S3 Trio64 PCI video card and a Yamaha YMF-718S ISA audio card. I like it for goofing around. I think I am running mine at 166-MHz. I have not really done much besides play Doom and similar games on it though.

Is this one of the ones with the custom BTX form factor and proprietary PSU wiring?

AidanExamineer wrote:

Is this one of the ones with the custom BTX form factor and proprietary PSU wiring?

No. The 4600 is standard micro ATX.

Also, I'm surprised that nobody here has mentioned that the 4600 has onboard SATA. If it's anything like my 8300, you can use hard drives as large as 320GB, maybe even higher than that. And, as Phil said, pair that 4600 up with something like an FX 5950 Ultra and you've got an excellent 2003-2005 period gaming machine.

Nah its standard Micro-ATX form factor and power supply. 20-pin + 4-pin 12V

Dagnabit... 🤣 oh well...

Sutekh94,

I will have some time tomorrow to try a few hard drives with the 4600 and report back. Not sure what size SATA drives I have on hand at the moment though. Pretty sure a 1TB, 160GB, 600GB and maybe a 320GB.

Just grabbed an Audigy 2 Dell OEM card that will plug into the Dell front panel headphone jack for like $12.00 US.

What would you do with a Dell Dimension 4600?

Neat, I have the same model,

I put XP on it and made it as high specced as I could.

CPU=3.2Ghz Pentium 4 Extreme Edition, from 2.8Ghz P4
RAM= 4GB DDR3200 (It originally had DDR2700) (only 3.2GB usable)
HDD= Velociraptor, 10,000RPM

It had a soundblaster Live in it, which I initially replaced with an Sound Blaster X-Fi, but it didn't have the right connector to attach to the front headphone jack, so I put in my Audigy.

I wanted the best GPU that I could possibly have, so I managed to get ahold of a Radeon HD 4670 for AGP

It had two optical drives inside it when I first got it, I replaced them with one DVDRW drive. This left a gaping hole, so I filled that with an old Floppy Drive.

HighTreason wrote:

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What would you do with a Dell Dimension 4600?

Of course you'd say that. 🤣

I have 2 sticks of Crucial DDR-400 1GB set aside and an XP Pro COA. So basically I just need a new PSU (bad cap in the one i took out) and choose a video card. I think this will be the box where I will probably swap between 2-3 video cards depending on what I want to play. Geforce4 for Splinter Cell and maybe a 6800GT, pretty sure I have one of those laying about.

HighTreason wrote:

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What would you do with a Dell Dimension 4600?

That's probably for the best. I've got a Compaq Presario that needs to be hauled to the transfer station.

I put quad 512mb sticks of ram in mine, freshly wiped 80 hard drive and a ATI 9550 256mb agp card in it before donating it to my Filipino step-grandmother's relatives in the Philippines. We sent a crate of half decent p4 rigs (mostly 775) to them, they run a internet cafe.

My main machine is an older Dell Dimension, an E520 to be exact.

Original specs:
Pentium 4
1GB DDR2 533
250GB HD
Integrated Graphics
305W PSU

That's the "before" specs when I just got ahold of it. After putting in some parts I had though, its kinda beefy now (relatively speaking).

New specs:
Core 2 Quad Q6600
4GB DDR2 800
1TB HD
Radeon HD 4830
500W PSU

The southbridge is an ICH8, so it supports SATA2, which is SSD worthy. Might get that later on as well as something like maybe a 750ti. Parts that I can put into a more modern system when I feel the need to upgrade. I'm tempted to get more ram but I don't want to put anymore $$ right now into DDR2 at the moment unless I could find 2GB DDR2 800 sticks for dirt cheap.

All I can say is, research the capabilities of the system and max that sucker, its fun and satisfying