Maximum upgrades for Dell Inspiron 530s (C2D)

[Shrek]

With 8GB I think Windows 10 should be fine.

 

[Remeca]

This is the pair I'm picking up tonight. It doesn't specify x64 or x128 or AMD or Intel that I can find, on Amazon or other specs I can find for it.

OCZ OCZ2P8004GK DDR2 800MHz 4GB Kit - Platinum Edition : Amazon.ca: Electronics

OCZ OCZ2P8004GK DDR2 800MHz 4GB Kit - Platinum Edition : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca

OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P8004GK - Newegg.com

Buy OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P8004GK with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

 

[Retrorockit]

This is the pair I'm picking up tonight. It doesn't specify x64 or x128 or AMD or Intel that I can find, on Amazon or other specs I can find for it.

OCZ OCZ2P8004GK DDR2 800MHz 4GB Kit - Platinum Edition : Amazon.ca: Electronics

OCZ OCZ2P8004GK DDR2 800MHz 4GB Kit - Platinum Edition : Amazon.ca: Electronics

www.amazon.ca

OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P8004GK - Newegg.com

Buy OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2P8004GK with fast shipping and top-rated customer service. Once you know, you Newegg!

www.newegg.com

In the reviews I saw those running with a Q6600 so it should be OK. On my Opti 380 when I warrantied some GSkill DDR3 1333 Ripjaws modules the replacements with the same part# were high density and wouldn't run. I stuck some Kingston DDR3 1066 modules in and got on with my life.

 

[theFOoL]

I'm in the process of updating my LTSC WiN10 Go and I'll Clone it to my second SSD What fun on my 775 BUILD

To those with WiN10 you'll like Taskbar Monitor LINK

 

[Retrorockit]

There are VID tapemods also that will allow the E7600 to be used. Since you have to start from your specific CPU Voltage and work from there with a drawing that's from the socket view, and not the CPU side it requires some planning. It's kind of a lost art. Different families of LGA775 CPUs had different VID tables. Some of them entirely diffferent. So be sure you're looking at the datasheet for the correct CPU family. Monkey see, monkey do, won't cut it here.
Here's a thread on this mod.

Successful E5200 BSEL and Volt Pin Mods

But this is only about 10% more performance and will boost heat and power consumption to a level that requires another heatsink and maybe PSU. Or...

forums.guru3d.com

this is what the e7600 result is.

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

This is the e7500 tapemod performance.

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

I haven't tried this but it should be possible to mod the Voltage too high and then pull it back down with Throttlestop.

 

[ShiBDiB]

I'm in the process of updating my LTSC WiN10 Go and I'll Clone it to my second SSD What fun on my 775 BUILD

To those with WiN10 you'll like Taskbar Monitor LINK

View attachment 212311

The last thing an underpowered system needs is a "neat" application that runs 24/7 using resources.

 

[Remeca]

The last thing an underpowered system needs is a "neat" application that runs 24/7 using resources.

I just saw that. I wouldn't use it on the Inspiron but I was just thinking about looking for something like that for my Optiplex the other day, instead of having HWmonitor open all the time. So, still a good suggestion.

 

[ShiBDiB]

I just saw that. I wouldn't use it on the Inspiron but I was just thinking about looking for something like that for my Optiplex the other day, instead of having HWmonitor open all the time. So, still a good suggestion.

For a different pc if you want something less hacky looking, you could get rainmeter and setup a widget similar to this. (Uses ~10MB of RAM)

 

[Remeca]

For a different pc if you want something less hacky looking, you could get rainmeter and setup a widget similar to this. (Uses ~10MB of RAM)

Options are good. It's been probably 15 years since I last tried Rainmeter.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Mine has a Core 2 Duo E6600, although the motherboard (Foxconn g33m03) officially supports up to a Q9650.

This is an excellent choice but a Q9550 would also be a great choice.

Despite what the manual on that cited webpage says(which was taken from the original manual for the system, not updated to reflect BIOS update changes), with the more recent BIOS update 8GB is supported. That system will support 4x2GB DDR2 800mhz RAM config.

 

[Remeca]

This is an excellent choice but a Q9550 would also be a great choice.

Despite what the manual on that cited webpage says(which was taken from the original manual for the system, not updated to reflect BIOS update changes), with the more recent BIOS update 8GB is supported. That system will support 4x2GB DDR2 800mhz RAM config.

Yeah, someone pointed that out earlier, and since I have the 4 slots and latest bios, I'm already buying up ram. Hard to find 2gb ddr2 800mhz for less than $10 a stick in North America, and even if you include China it's difficult. At the top of this page you can see the 2x2GB ram I'm picking up tonight for $15cad. Still looking for another 4gb. CPU is still up in the air. I ordered a c2d e7500 to try the tape trick and see if that's enough. It was less than $10. If I think a quad could do better or it doesn't work, I have a plethora of choices. I'm all for cheaper is better, modding ,and making (cheap) mistakes.

ETA: the q9550 is half the price of the q9650, similar to the Xeons. Tempting.

 

[Shrek]

This is an excellent choice but a Q9550 would also be a great choice.

I agree, the Q9550 tends to be a lot cheaper than the Q9650

 

[lexluthermiester]

Yeah, someone pointed that out earlier, and since I have the 4 slots and latest bios, I'm already buying up ram. Hard to find 2gb ddr2 800mhz for less than $10 a stick in North America, and even if you include China it's difficult. At the top of this page you can see the 2x2GB ram I'm picking up tonight for $15cad. Still looking for another 4gb.

I kinda glossed over most of the thread, sorry about that.

CPU is still up in the air. I ordered a c2d e7500 to try the tape trick and see if that's enough. It was less than $10. If I think a quad could do better or it doesn't work, I have a plethora of choices. I'm all for cheaper is better, modding ,and making (cheap) mistakes.

If this is just a tinkering system, then yeah have fun, but if this is your daily driver, a Quad would be wiser, see below.

ETA: the q9550 is half the price of the q9650, similar to the Xeons. Tempting.

To be fair, it's is the best bang-for-buck choice in the current market. The Q9650 is a great CPU, but the Q9550 performs within a few percent of it. Similar performance for half the price? If money is tight(and there's no shame if it is in the current world economy, so no judgements from me), the Q9550 is a golden CPU for that system.

How much is the Q9550 held back by DDR2 RAM? (I run mine on DDR3)

Not much unless you OC. IF you're not OCing then the differences between DDR2 and DDR3 don't matter much on socket 775.

 

[Remeca]

I kinda glossed over most of the thread, sorry about that.

It happens.

If this is just a tinkering system, then yeah have fun, but if this is your daily driver, a Quad would be wiser, see below.

It's not a terribly important one, not a main school or work or gaming PC, just where the kids can go to play Roblox or Lego games or whatever. It just seems unnecessarily slow and unresponsive.

To be fair, it's is the best bang-for-buck choice in the current market. The Q9650 is a great CPU, but the Q9550 performs within a few percent of it. Similar performance for half the price? If money is tight(and there's no shame if it is in the current world economy, so no judgements from me), the Q9550 is a golden CPU for that system.

It always is, my main project is upgrading my Optiplex 9020 with a 4770k or 4790k, and overclocking that with Throttle stop per @Retrorockit's suggestion in the Dell Workstation thread. If I can get a couple more years out of both of them, that's a bonus.
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Installed the new 2x2GB of ram. BIOS says it's running in dual channel at 800mhz. Resource manager reports it properly. Userbenchmark, before and after the ram swap, improperly reports my ram in the results.

Before ram swap:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

After ram swap:

Please click the green human to continue - UserBenchmark

It did feel like it ran through the startup stuff a little quicker, but who knows. I tried installing 2 of the 1GB sticks in dimms 2 and 4, but I got ram error beeps when booting.

I finally found the actual manual and read it, and it says not to match new ram pairs with the factory ram, or mix sizes. I didn't even think of sizes because for some reason my main has been running just fine for a while on 3x4GB and 1x2GB. Just going to keep looking around for a deal on another pair of 2gb.

Despite what userbenchmark says, the bios and Windows properly reported the memory. I haven't run any memory specific software or tests.

Old and mismatched:

New and Shiny:

Thanks for stopping by and all the opinions and advice. I'll update as more parts come in. Best case scenario would be a gaming surfboard.

 

[Retrorockit]

The OCZ RAM says 2.1V. and has some tight timings listed. The Dell will probably run them at the standard 1.8V.
Generic Crucial or Hynix RAM usually works best in Dells. Maybe if you mix the 2x2GB with 2x1GB the MB will set up at the slower settings and run all of them at 1.8V.
Just be sure you have 3GB in each channel.
I would like to see at least 6GB of RAM with a 2GB GPU.

 

[eidairaman1]

For about $30 CAD I could get a Xeon X5460 and LGA 771>775 adapter, which looks to be on par with the Q9650, if it works. Or for $70 I could get the Q9650, pretty much guaranteed to work. Or, for $100, a QX9650, which at 130W would almost certainly require a new PSU as well. The improvement in performance doesn't look like it's worth an extra $30 plus a new PSU. That leaves me with the X5460 or the Q9650. I guess the question is, am I feeling lucky?

I wouldnt bother risking money on a dell bios board with a xeon, just drop the highest supported fsb c2q in it and call it a day.

With 8GB I think Windows 10 should be fine.

Considering 4GB was fine on W7, yes...

 

[Remeca]

The OCZ RAM says 2.1V. and has some tight timings listed. The Dell will probably run them at the standard 1.8V.
Generic Crucial or Hynix RAM usually works best in Dells. Maybe if you mix the 2x2GB with 2x1GB the MB will set up at the slower settings and run all of them at 1.8V.
Just be sure you have 3GB in each channel.
I would like to see at least 6GB of RAM with a 2GB GPU.

CPUZ says they're running at 1.8V. I hadn't tried putting the OCZ on different channels, so I've been trying that. The only configuration that worked was the OCZ in slot 2 and 3, and the Hynix in slot 4. So now I'm in the bios and it says I have 5GB of 800Mhz dual channel. No configuration that included any of the Crucial sticks worked with the OCZ. Not a big deal though, I'm up 1GB and I'll get another 4GB soon.

I wouldnt bother risking money on a dell bios board with a xeon, just drop the highest supported fsb c2q in it and call it a day.


Considering 4GB was fine on W7, yes...

It came with Vista. It really only needed 1GB.

 

[Retrorockit]

The Inspiron 530 is not looking good for the Xeon swap.

LGA 771 to 775 Adapter (MOD) - Run faster Xeon CPUs in a Core 2 Quad motherboard - Page 3 of 5

Learn how to MOD your LGA 775 motherboard to support faster LGA 771 Xeon CPUs. Also covers: the adapter, motherboard compatibility, and troubleshooting.

www.delidded.com

The X5460 is 120W and probably won't boot due to that. The QX9650 at 130W isn't going to happen either. Q9650, or a tapemodded 2 core is as good as it gets.
They show an X5270 running. A whole Xeon swap for 3.5GHz 2 core,when the tapemod E7500 goes 3.67Ghz.
I have seen Pentium E6500K from China for $15 which will probably go past 4GHz with TS overclocking due to the unlocked Voltage. But has SSE4 disabled. Just like the E6600 you have now.

 

[eidairaman1]

CPUZ says they're running at 1.8V. I hadn't tried putting the OCZ on different channels, so I've been trying that. The only configuration that worked was the OCZ in slot 2 and 3, and the Hynix in slot 4. So now I'm in the bios and it says I have 5GB of 800Mhz dual channel. No configuration that included any of the Crucial sticks worked with the OCZ. Not a big deal though, I'm up 1GB and I'll get another 4GB soon.


It came with Vista. It really only needed 1GB.

1gb on vista was molasses, 1gb on 7 ran great lol

 

[Remeca]

The Inspiron 530 is not looking good for the Xeon swap.

LGA 771 to 775 Adapter (MOD) - Run faster Xeon CPUs in a Core 2 Quad motherboard - Page 3 of 5

Learn how to MOD your LGA 775 motherboard to support faster LGA 771 Xeon CPUs. Also covers: the adapter, motherboard compatibility, and troubleshooting.

www.delidded.com

The X5460 is 120W and probably won't boot due to that. The QX9650 at 130W isn't going to happen either. Q9650, or a tapemodded 2 core is as good as it gets.
They show an X5270 running. A whole Xeon swap for 3.5GHz 2 core,when the tapemod E7500 goes 3.67Ghz.
I have seen Pentium E6500K from China for $15 which will probably go past 4GHz with TS overclocking due to the unlocked Voltage. But has SSE4 disabled. Just like the E6600 you have now.

I've ordered the e7500 and I'm definitely going to try the tape mod with it. I think if I go beyond that, it will be a Q9550. It's only $30 inside Canada, same price as the socket modded Xeon e5450 from China.

 

[Retrorockit]

I've ordered the e7500 and I'm definitely going to try the tape mod with it. I think if I go beyond that, it will be a Q9550. It's only $30 inside Canada, same price as the socket modded Xeon e5450 from China.

Q9550 is the best bang for the buck solution. But with that level of GPU single thread gaming will benefit more from clock speed and the E7500 is the best choice there.
If you get the CPU,RAM, and SSD sorted out, IMO the sweet spot for 8GB systems is the GTX1060-3GB GPU. I don't shy away form spending on GPU and PSU because they can be moved ahead to a later system. Some of the old Dells need a lot of power on the 5V. rail. Keep that in mind when looking at PSUs. Dell 365W-375W units are out there and are quality parts if you want to go bargain hunting. But the BTX units have very short wiring for that layout so avoid those.

 

[Shrek]

I would tend to only get a supported CPU for the microcode in the BIOS.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Considering 4GB was fine on W7, yes...

Good point. I've been testing Win11 on 4GB and it runs fine.

 

[Shrek]

IMO the sweet spot for 8GB systems is the GTX1060-3GB GPU.

Doesn't that need a 6 pin connector? which the Dell 530 probably does not have.

 

[theFOoL]

Doesn't that need a 6 pin connector? which the Dell 530 probably does not have

Could get a split molex