Dimension 5100

Just bought a second-hand Dimension 5100 with a P4 HT and 250GB sata and
1GB Ram. How can I make this fast enough to play games like Quake 6, Crysis
etc? The machine has 2 PCI slots and a PCI Express 16-bit slot. What's the
other (very small) slot and what's it used for? (A PCI x1...'I think it's
called).
Can I add an extra hard drive so I can have 'TWO' hard drives as 'seperate'
drives, so one is independent of the other, like having one as backup drive
or a place to store files etc.,? (So that if I took the second drive out
later, the system would still run).

Thanks.
J

"J" <> wrote in message
news:IzSFo.183544$2...
>
> Just bought a second-hand Dimension 5100 with a P4 HT and 250GB sata and
> 1GB Ram. How can I make this fast enough to play games like Quake 6,
> Crysis etc? The machine has 2 PCI slots and a PCI Express 16-bit slot.
> What's the other (very small) slot and what's it used for? (A PCI x1...'I
> think it's called).
> Can I add an extra hard drive so I can have 'TWO' hard drives as
> 'seperate' drives, so one is independent of the other, like having one as
> backup drive or a place to store files etc.,? (So that if I took the
> second drive out later, the system would still run).
>
> Thanks.
> J

More questions

This machine has 2 x SATA connectors for hard drives, and connectors for two
optical drives as well. Is it possible to use one of the optical drive
connectors to install and run an 'old' ATA hard drive? (Parrallel ATA).

Cheers.

J

On 11/20/2010 11:41 AM, J wrote:
> "J"<> wrote in message
> news:IzSFo.183544$2...
>>
>> Just bought a second-hand Dimension 5100 with a P4 HT and 250GB sata and
>> 1GB Ram. How can I make this fast enough to play games like Quake 6,
>> Crysis etc? The machine has 2 PCI slots and a PCI Express 16-bit slot.
>> What's the other (very small) slot and what's it used for? (A PCI x1...'I
>> think it's called).
>> Can I add an extra hard drive so I can have 'TWO' hard drives as
>> 'seperate' drives, so one is independent of the other, like having one as
>> backup drive or a place to store files etc.,? (So that if I took the
>> second drive out later, the system would still run).
>>
>> Thanks.
>> J
>
> More questions
>
> This machine has 2 x SATA connectors for hard drives, and connectors for two
> optical drives as well. Is it possible to use one of the optical drive
> connectors to install and run an 'old' ATA hard drive? (Parrallel ATA).
>
> Cheers.
>
> J
>
>
>
For gaming, you want to get a very good PCI-Express graphics card and
more memory. It's possible to use an older ATA hard drive, but not
advisable. You can set up a second drive as a data-only drive, which is
what I have done with this system. Just get another SATA drive. They
are very inexpensive... Ben Myers

"Timothy Daniels" <> wrote in message
news: m...
> "Ben Myers" wrote:
>> J wrote:
>>> "J"<> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Just bought a second-hand Dimension 5100 with a P4 HT and 250GB
>>>> sata and
>>>> 1GB Ram. How can I make this fast enough to play games like Quake 6,
>>>> Crysis etc? The machine has 2 PCI slots and a PCI Express 16-bit slot.
>>>> What's the other (very small) slot and what's it used for? (A PCI
>>>> x1...'I
>>>> think it's called).
>>>> Can I add an extra hard drive so I can have 'TWO' hard drives as
>>>> 'seperate' drives, so one is independent of the other, like having one
>>>> as
>>>> backup drive or a place to store files etc.,? (So that if I took the
>>>> second drive out later, the system would still run).
>>>>
>>>> Thanks.
>>>> J
>>>
>>> More questions
>>>
>>> This machine has 2 x SATA connectors for hard drives, and connectors for
>>> two
>>> optical drives as well. Is it possible to use one of the optical drive
>>> connectors to install and run an 'old' ATA hard drive? (Parrallel ATA).
>>>
>>> Cheers.
>>>
>>> J
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> For gaming, you want to get a very good PCI-Express graphics card and
>> more memory. It's possible to use an older ATA hard drive, but not
>> advisable. You can set up a second drive as a data-only drive, which is
>> what I have done with this system. Just get another SATA drive. They
>> are very inexpensive... Ben Myers
>
> On the graphics card, keep in mind the capacity of the power supply,
> which is 305watts. See the service manual:
> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1097152
>
> *TimDaniels*


Thanks guys.

J