EggXpert

I would like to upgrade my Dell GX260 motherboard without having to change any of my other hardware like the HDD

and optical drives. It's pretty old and there are some newer games out that i would like to play like COD4. What would

you reccomend me do?

well not changing hard drives and optical drives is easy, its a matter of finding the right combo of processor, ram, and gpu which is right for you... Upgrading the motherboard alone wont give you any boost in performance but rather the upgrading of the processor and video card which really make the difference. Ill look into your current socket type and etc and well see if we can keep with in your budget.

I believe that this board will support your pentium 4, and also be flexable enough for you...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131142, would have gone with a 570 chipset but they only carry jetway who I wouldnt trust.

and for a video card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130360 154 before mail in rebate then 125. And that keeps you under your 250 budget. Youll have a nice video card which can run cod4, and some others for a very concervative price!

My only other concern would be does your current destop have ddr2 or ddr 400, and is it atx or micro atx because that would change everything :p

Thanks for the reply, sorry it took so long to get back though. In Iraq right now and the internet is hit and miss.

Well, I would be needing to buy ram as well. This thing doesn't have DDR2.

Also how much of a hassle is it to remount the processor on the new motherboard? Never done it.

How do i find out what kind of socket my current processor needs. I have not ruled out getting a motherboard processor

Another thing I have been reading is that the power supply for the dell's is proprietary. Something about two

of there pins are reversed or something.

Another thing is do new mother boards come with a bios? 

All motherboards come with and have a BIOS. Its needed for a PC to start.

Your system is older. It's socket 478, DDR(1), AGP, IDE, etc. Those are all at dead ends and not cost effective to upgrade for. 

The PSU is standard. It's not proprietary. Dell stopped that with the Dimension 4100 (Pentium III era) being the last to have a proprietary PSU.

The bad news...

Dell obviously still wanted something proprietary, so it's now the motherboard, sort of. What I mean by sort of is that it's really standard, but the case/motherboard are fit together in a proprietary way, meaning a new motherboard means a new case, and with a new motherboard, you'll need new RAM, a new CPU, and GPU, and then surely that Dell PSU won't be enough. In other words, it's possible, but you're basically going to be needing a new system anyway, so why kill the Dell? The old HDD WILL be slower and yes it WILL make a difference using an IDE drive versus a new SATA one. The only thing salvageable might be a sound card if any (the GX260 should have onboard) or the CD/DVD-Rom drive, but those are only $30.

I was in the same boat last year. I had a GX270 and upgraded it over time (PSU, CPU, GPU, added RAM, and so on), and while I don't regret it, since it came in steps and I made SURE to get it cheap, if you're doing it all in one step and will go retail (I went second-hand eBay), it's not worth it in my opinion. It won't be cost effective. Keep the Dell as a basic machine and get a new one for games. Hardware is cheap these days and even budget machines do well. They won't be as good, of course, and will become obsolete quickly (but what doesn't, and who cares?), but even a modern budget PC will smoke that Dell, and it doesn't take the best to run Call of Duty 4. If you decide to buy a new build, give a budget and others can make suggestions.