Taking your Dell Dimensions XPS D233 into the future…

by Yeh Ern

Slow, worthless piece of hardware you think? Well, the truth be told, I’m very fond of the Dell Dimensions XPS D233 as it happens to be my very first Dell, and also my very first Pentium II processor. Sure, it had only a 233 MHz processor and 32 MB of (unofficial) PC66 SDRAM. But back in early 1998, it was comparable to today’s 1 GHz processors with 128 MB of PC133 SDRAMs. You’d have friends harping on you excitedly asking you how’s the performance of the latest processor from Intel with its new radical “slot” interface as opposed to the older Socket 7 interface. Time isn’t always kind to computer hardware, how can one of the greatest processor of old sink so low today?

The reason Intel decided to move to a Slot 1 interface was because they wanted to integrate the L2 cache into the processor and by doing so, maintain a tight control over the quality of L2 cache and also offer faster performance by running the L2 cache half the speed of the processor instead of speed of the motherboard’s FSB. Back in 1998, the L2 cache simply isn’t small enough to fit onto the processor, so, logically, Intel choose the migration to the Slot 1 interface.

 Yes, I feel your pain, having obsolete PC100 SDRAM sticks lying around and only running 32 MB of PC66 in that Dell box… What gives? Well, if you tried plugging any stick of PC100s into the Intel LX-chipset motherboard (will get into this a bit later) the motherboard would simply not boot. Funny isn’t it? You’re not even overclocking your PC100s, infact, if anything, you’re running PC100s at a slow 66 MHz FSB instead of a 100 MHz FSB.

To get to the point, your BIOS simply wouldn’t recognize the PC100 SDRAMs. Ah, yes, simply startup your browser and browse over to Dell’s website and do a search for the latest BIOS for the Dimensions XPS D233, read the instructions, flash the motherboard and… Voila! The BIOS flash would get your Dell Dimensions XPS D233 to recognize the PC100s and upgrade your aging Dell Dimensions D233 cheaply, if not free. SDRAMs are at an all time low, and PC100? Heh! I bet you can even get them free if you ask politely… (Just don’t ask me ;)

BUT wait! What if you have a Celeron either a Slot 1 or PPGA lying around? Well, I bet you’ve also given up trying to upgrade your slow Pentium II 233 (mind you, this processor is not multiplier-locked, I ran my PII 233 (3.5 x 66 MHz) @ 333 MHz (2.5 x 133 MHz on my Abit BE6-II v1.0 motherboard flawlessly, with nothing more than 2 x 60 mm Panaflow fans on the gigantic OEM Dell heatsink! And I even drop the 2.8V all the way down to 2.0V ;) I tested my Abit BE6-II motherboard’s stability using this Pentium II 233 by running it at 300 MHz (2 x 150 MHz FSB) which really stresses the PC100s and BX chipset but not the processor as I know it could easily do 333 MHz stable. What a gem that processor was…

Okay, by now, you’d be asking “So? What's the big deal?! I need answers not stories...” okay, okay… let’s move on…

Have you ever noticed that Dell doesn’t actually manufacture it’s own motherboards? Well, meaning it must’ve asked an OEM motherboard manufacturer to produce the board. Look closely at the various stickers that adorn the motherboard… See what I see? YES, they have Intel’s name on it everywhere! Okay, let’s surf over to Intel’s website then and have a look at their LX-chipset offering. Oh, my gawd! It looks identical to my Dell Dimensions XPS D233 motherboard. Make no mistakes about that, it is an Intel AL440LX motherboard (without a second serial port and a missing fan header, that is… ;) Go ahead, look for the details, yes, integrated Yamaha sound chipset… all the details are the same. Wait! Intel motherboards also support their value line of processors - The Celeron and PC100s out of the box?! What are you waiting for… download the BIOS update now!

The reason why you can’t seem to run your Celeron in that Dell Dimensions XPS D233 motherboard even though mechanically they fit is because the Celeron require a 2.0V core voltage to run as opposed to the Pentium II (Klamath), which require 2.8V to the core.

After downloading the BIOS flash, read through the instructions, this could prove pretty unnerving at first... Hmm, seems that the screen would blank out completely… and you only have to rely on the beep codes. Oh, well… No risks, no fun! After all, no screwed up motherboard means you’d be stuck with that piece of junk forever… ;) Oh, okay… let’s do it then…. After flashing, reset the system and wait for it to bootup… OMG!!! IT WORKS!!! IT WORKS!!! :)) Just disable that woosy-looking BIOS start screen if you don’t like it. Initially, I thought that was the price I had to pay for the ability to upgrade my processor and RAMs.

Let’s plug in the good ol’ Celeron PPGA 366 MHz into it. (Not directly, though… you’ll need a slocket - Slot 1 to Socket converter) Well, if you have a Slot 1 Celeron, go ahead and plug it in.

The only modifications I had to do at this point was to drill out (enlarge) the holes for the CPU brackets as to accommodate a bracket that would hold the slocket securely.

Bootup and voila! You’re now running a modified Dell Dimensions XPS Dxxx (fill up the “xxx” with whatever clockspeed you have)

I don’t have a Celeron PPGA 533 MHz (8 x 66 MHz) processor, and the Intel website only states that it only supports up to a Celeron 433 MHz (6.5 x 66 MHz) processor, but thanks to Intel for locking the clock-multiplier, I believe you can even run the PPGA 533 MHz Celeron in the system and get a performance boost from it.

(Do note that the Celeron PPGA 533 MHz is the last of the PPGA Celeron from Intel. Do not confuse the PPGA Celeron 533 MHz with the (Flip-chip) Celeron II 533A (note the “A”). The Celeron II is an emasculated Pentium III with half the L2 cache which when overclock to 100 MHz FSB could easily run at 800 MHz stable! Sadly, the flip-chip just can’t run in the Intel LX-chipset motherboard, as it requires a lowly 1.5V to the core.)

If you have the cash to spare, you can even upgrade the STB Velocity 128 (then, nVidia Riva 128 – the first 2D/3D graphics chip on the market back in 1998) to a value card from NVidia - the GeForce2 MX 32 MB (If you can find old stock of this cards, I think you’ll get it pretty cheap, it’s basically the same as the GeForce2 MX400, just that the GPU is clocked at 175 MHz as opposed to the MX400’s 200 MHz – we all know that the GeForce2 GPU is memory bandwidth limited, so overclocking the GPU has little to no difference in overall gains). With only 3 fans in the system (one case fan, one power supply fan and a slow CPU fan) in the system, it is extremely quiet and made a very good mp3 player for my bedroom. I would normally run it overnight until the next morning… till the evening sometimes, until I wakeup that is… ;)

I also did overclock my modified Dell Dimensions running a Celeron 366 MHz by using H.Oda!’s SoftFSB and running the Celeron at 440 MHz at 80 MHz FSB! This particular Celeron could do 550 MHz @ 2.0V stable, so 440 MHz isn’t a problem.

Below is a list of components that make up my Dimensions XPS Dxxx: 

·         Intel Celeron PPGA 366 @ 440MHz processor

·         Intel AL440LX motherboard

·         192MB of Samsung PC100 SDRAM (64 MB x3)

·         STB Velocity 128

·         Generic heatsink with a garden variety 40 mm fan

·         Quantum Fireball CR 8.4 GB HDD (5,400 RPM)

·         Windows 9x 

·         Direct X 8.0a and NVidia Riva 128 reference drivers

·         US Robotics 56K Message Modem

 I do hope that helps prolong the life of your Dell Dimension XPS D233 a while longer. For average surfing, email and general word processing I guess this is all that you’ll ever need.

Update:

Originally the plan of upgrading the Dell was to swap out the motherboard with an Abit BE6-II v1.0 which I bought particularly to upgrade the XPS D233. I didn’t want to spend on a new casing, processor, RAMs, PSU and HDD as I thought I could merely upgrade the Dell cheaply to a BX chipset (unofficial 133 MHz FSB) and overclock the PII 233 to 333 MHz (2.5 x 133 MHz FSB).

I plugged in everything, and finally the PS cable to the BE6-II and turned it on. What did I get? A high pitch wail. I quickly turned it off, as it sounded like something was wrong. Double-checked all connections, looks okay to me. Furthermore, if a processor or RAM was loose, it’d still power up the motherboard along with all the fans. Finally, I shrugged it off as the PSU being under power as it was rated at around 200W or so.

Fast forward to the present day, people are starting to notice that their Dell machines don’t work or worst, when the motherboard/PSU immediately burns out when they start swapping out the motherboard as a cheap upgrade path.This has been highlighted by Bob Thompson, author of O'Reilly's PC Hardware in a Nutshell  on QUE’s website which can be found at this address http://165.193.123.52/articles/upgrade3_01_01.asp.

Apparently, Dell wires their PSU differently and the Dell version of Intel motherboards wires the ATX cables confirming to that of the Dell PSU which differ from the ATX standards while using standard ATX connectors. While the PSU cables are reversible, it’s still a pain to do. Worst is if it catches the average DIY-person out by simply burning out that brand new motherboard or the PSU. I guess I was lucky it did not burn out my Abit board and/or the PSU.

Personally, I would have to agree with Thompson’s claims there is no technical reason for Dell doing so. Could this have been the very reason why PC100 SDRAMs and Celerons processors don’t work with the Dell BIOS? That Dell simply wants to maintain a tight control over its customers?

Perhaps this could be related to the fact that Dell sells upgrades for its machines on its US site. In Malaysia, you could get refurbished Dell parts for your Dimensions which is generally the price they charge for a new part. This is my personal experience when I called in Dell inquiring about a piece of unofficial 64 MB PC66 SDRAM, which back in 1999 cost around RM500 plus. In comparison, compatible 64 MB PC100 SDRAM sold at about half that price.

Perhaps my observation of the absence of the second serial port and a missing fan header has finally been justified as to why. I believe Dell should be responsible enough to either develop its own proprietary motherboard/PSU connectors or stick a warning label to notify consumers about it and not simply leave an “open trap” as to punish defecting customers.