Pentium III motherboard into Pentium II case?

Hi, I have a Dell Precision with a Pentium II processor. I've been
considering upgrading it to a Pentium III processor and motherboard
because it seems like an inexpensive way to give this good older system
more performance.

Would this be an easy swap or even possible at all? I haven't found any
specific information on this subject.

Any opinion or ideas welcome!

Fred

 

I am no longer familiar with those motherboards, but this is what you
look for to determine electrical compatibility.
Look at the present setup, and see what kind of power connector there
is from the power supply to the motherboard: an AT type supply and
motherboard will have twin in-line single row (of wires) connectors, and
the newer ATX type supply and motherboard will have one dual-row
connector (which i think both use).
One cannot mix those types unless one gets a "special" motherboard
that supports both types of supplies (such beasties existed for a while
during the transition).

 

No.
At some point Dell switched to proprietary power supplies so generic ATX
motherboards will not work.
Realize the PIII went through a series of CPU packagings that require
specific motherboards, if they can even be found.
Also there is no point in upgrading older to old technology unless you have
the parts laying around and want to experiment.
If your system still performs adequately for word processing or whatever
just ride it until it dies.

 

I'm looking at buying a Dell PIII motherboard on ebay. They are really
cheap so I could experiment with it whether it works or not. The board
I have now has the Xeon PII running at 450 MHz which is actually
adequate for most software except for the very latest games. I checked
the psu connector like Robert wrote and it is the two row connector so
it may be a plug and play connection. I like the Dell precision
case---lots of heavy metal and easy to work on.
If it works I'll post my results.

Fred

 

A two row power connector has nothing to do with "plug and play".
Only the BIOS and OS support such "features".

 

Sorry. My use of the phrase "plug and play" was not intended to mean the
same as Microsoft's "Plug and Play" catch phrase. I know that they use
it to refer to peripheral devices which are recognized by the operating
system when connected to the serial, parallel, USB or PMCIA ports. I was
intending to inject a little levity by stretching the meaning of the
phrase to include the main board itself.

 

In that case, stretch slightly more and say "plug and pray".