I have a Dell Dimension DIM2400 with 2.4Ghz Celeron processor and 512mb of PC2700 RAM. I also have an Emachine with a Pentium 4 and 1.5Gb of PC3200 RAM. I've been told that Emachines can be unreliable so should I take the Pentium 4 chip out of it and put it in the Dell or should I just ditch the Dell? I've had some pc guys tell me that the Celeron chips on run at about half speed. What I am wondering is if the Dell would be more reliable as a whole over time? If so I'd like to rob the better parts from the Emachine. So should I make a Frankenstein pc or just stick with one or the other?

With both CPU's and RAM you'd have to check the motherboard compatibilities.

Neither of those computers are very upgradeable in my opinion.

The eMachine appears as a slightly more powerful machine.

I would leave them alone and if you are really interested in a new machine start from scratch.

I'm on a tight budget right now and can't afford a new pc. My wife got laid off several months ago and hasn't been able to find a suitable replacement job so we are running on my income alone. If you were me then what would you do with the equipment that you already have?

If both are running with no outstanding issues I would leave them alone.

Always nice to have two computers. You can network them if they are not.

As far as hardware swapping I really see no advantage here.

Which do you think is the better pc as a whole? I'm planning on keeping the best one for myself and letting the kids do their thing on the other so they don't load mine up with Spyware and viruses...

That eMachine is better than that Dell.

Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it...

No problem. Glad to help.

Let us know if we can help further.

Will do, maybe I can help out on here somehow....

Originally Posted by johntharkins

I have a Dell Dimension DIM2400 with 2.4Ghz Celeron processor and 512mb of PC2700 RAM. I also have an Emachine with a Pentium 4 and 1.5Gb of PC3200 RAM. I've been told that Emachines can be unreliable so should I take the Pentium 4 chip out of it and put it in the Dell or should I just ditch the Dell? I've had some pc guys tell me that the Celeron chips on run at about half speed. What I am wondering is if the Dell would be more reliable as a whole over time? If so I'd like to rob the better parts from the Emachine. So should I make a Frankenstein pc or just stick with one or the other?

your pentium will likely not work in the celeron slot. you just have to weigh the options, your pentium 4 processor, will run better then the celeron. your celeron does not run at half speed, whoever tells you that is smoking funny weed, however your pentium will run better. the reason is the cache size-celerons have horribly small cache sizes. i had a 1.8 ghz celeron in a HP desktop, ran decent and cool, only like a 128 kb cache or something like that, dont remember the exact but it was small. that computer conked on me, so i purchased a HP laptop with an AMD turion. the processor was the same clock speed, 1.8 ghz, but it runs two to three times faster because i have a 512 kb cache size on it. here is the thing though, your pentium will process more, but your celeron will run cooler and likely run longer bacause of it. i have a friend with an emachines comp and it runs just fine, id never buy one but then again ive given up on buying premade comps, rather make my own. so simply decide which comp you like more, or use both. you could set one up as a linux firewall and route your other computer through it as added security.