Pitfalls of a Dell Dimension 3100

chunter

Just a word of warning about the Dell Dimension 3100.
I bought one partly because of the following:

PCI Express x1: 36-pin connector
from (http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_3100?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=specstab#tabtop)
believing it to be a graphics card slot.

Alas.. I assumed X1 meant there was just the one...
It transpires the X1 seems to be a gigabyte netword card slot..
X8 & X16 are the graphics card slots, or so I can figure.

It's a pci graphics cards for me I'm afraid.

and there are no AGP slots & only 2 pci slots on the board..
I have an 1100 & it's easier to upgrade !! (and that's saying something)

ALSO
For some reason the 3100 has special plastic caddies for hard drives - so there'll be no second drive installed until you can requisition one of those..

wobbley

This is what Dell do. They don't want you upgrading the PC, they want you to get on their website and buy a better one.

chunter

Just a quick update on the Dimension 1100.

It has 3 PCI slots and 3 IDE connectors and there's no bay for an additional hard drive.
If stuck, you can buy a standard mounting kit to stick it into the 2nd optical bay.
and bizarrely... you can burn a recovery cd with the 1100 but i can't see an obvious way of doing it with the 3100.

wonderfullife_2

Hi
Yes your right, there is no available upgrade, and how many people have not noticed, thinking that they can upgrade at a later date.
In the 5150 its an 1 PCIe x 16 (graphics) slot.
I think this stinks and I would complain to Dell, although I suppose it wouldn't do much good.

jakemuk

cleary states X1 and when pci-e is stated it always refers to the speed, its people not checking before they buy

pchelpman

wonderfullife wrote:

I think this stinks and I would complain to Dell, although I suppose it wouldn't do much good.

You could try this (it might make you feel better!!) .........

http://www.ihatedell.net/

shown73

There should be two spare green runners for another hard drive slotted into the empty bay. Just unclip them, fix onto the other hard drive, and slot in.