Upgrade options for your Dell Dimension 2300?
The upgrade options for a Dell Dimension are very limited.
Consider putting the money towards a new computer instead. You
would likely receive far better results for not much more money. If
you truly wish to upgrade, here is what you can "max out":
The Dell Dimension 2300 supports a maximum of 1 GB, using two
512 MB PC133 SDRAM modules.
The Dell Dimension uses Socket 478 a maximum FSB of 400 MHz. The
fastest processor you could thus run in this system is a Pentium 4
@ 2.8 GHz. Make sure you buy the correct one, as there is also a
2.8 GHz Pentium 4 with a 533 MHz FSB. If you put this one in your
system instead, it will run at 2.1 GHz
There are no AGP or PCI-E slots in your system, so you are
extremely limited in video card performance. You can find some
cards based on fairlymodern chipsets, but they will cost more than
their PCI-E counterparts.
This one actually isn't too bad to upgrade. As long as you have
a BIOS dated 2002 or later, you can use practically any IDE / PATA
drive on the market. SATA is possible with an add-in PCI card, but
you probably won't see any performance advancement over PATA.