UpGrade

The easiest option would be to buy a new MB, CPU, and perhaps RAM. If your machine is a Pentium II (which I believe it to be), you have the older style Slot 1 type. Intel has changed the CPU "plug" a number of times since the Pentium II and so the newer CPU's such as the P4, and even some P3's use the Socket-type (also with a varying number of pins). If you only want to upgrade the CPU, you may still be able to find some old P2's (400Mhz and 450Mhz) or some old P3's (450Mhz - to 700Mhz?). Abovethat, you will need a new MB, and possibly RAM, depending on the MB type.

To answer your question, your Dimension V350 has an integrated Intel 440BX AGPset. For you that mean's your dell will support up to a 100MHz front side bus (FSB) processor, which your PII350 is. That 440BX AGPset chipset will support any 100MHz FSB processor. I am quite sure your dell will go to PII450. What is your greatest concern is the supporting chipset and B.I.O.S. You dells have a flashable B.I.O.S so you will have to check with dell about how high of a processor they will support with the latest B.I.O.S update. Another issue is you have a SLOT1 motherboard. There are various SLOT1 processors above 450 MHz at 100 MHz FSB. Intel changed the design of other 100MHz FSB processors to the socket 370 design. That does not mean that you cannot choose one of these if you want and you Motherboard supports it but you will have to buy a 370 to SLOT1 adapter commonly referred to as a ?slotkey? to accommodate a 370 processor.

Your supporting chipset will only hold 384 MB [Maximum] of PC100 memory. It only has 2X AGP and is ATA33 for the hard drive controller. By today?s standards this is antiquated. You could add all the processor you want but you still have several bottlenecks inherent to the system. If you maxed the memory at 384 and put in an ATA 100/133 hard drive and hard drive controller you will see a nice performance increases with that PII 350. My opinion is even if you upgrade the processor to a PIII700, if the system will support it you will be disappointed if you dothe processor alone.

This question was auto closed due to inactivity