modding a dell inspiron 530 (help)

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Droid

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Ok fellas, put your thinking caps on...

I have a Dell Inspiron 530. It ain't a bad budget machine. But its quickly becoming not so hot, mainly cause the vid card isn't good enough. I guess I should say that I want to modify it to get ready for Bad Company 2 (BF3 for us PC'ers), so now that you have a refernece. I will list what my specs are now and what I am possibly looking at. You can then flame to your hearts desire!

Dell Inspiron 530
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 at 2.4Ghz
2 gigs ram
ATI HD 2600 XT 256mb (I think)
350 watt PSU (horrible)
XP Pro

I'll start by saying I want to upgrade mainly the vid card and RAM. I know that I can only go to 4 gigs with XP Pro or any 32 bit OS. So I will also have to get windows 7 64bit. Also I want to a good, not the best, but good card, so I know that I also have to get a much bigger PSU, probably around 700+ watts. Knowing that I want a good card, maybe a GTX 275 or something similar...it won't fit in my case, so I'll need a full size case. Is there anything else that I am overlooking? Should I get a better mobo while i'm at it. The mobo now is a foxconn that dell uses and it is hard to find any info on it. I just don't know what the max RAM is for the mobo or if the mobo will even take full advantage of a much better vid card and 64bit OS. ...help!

Thanks!!!

Droid
 
First of all, you have the king of overclocking CPU. Motherboard, motherboard.....oh, did I mention a motherboard?

With a new one, you would have the ability to overclock the pants off that chip (literally the pants will catch fire from all the heat)

Next would be a video card, ATI 5770 is my pick, it's small so it should easily fit the case. And it's fast as heck, and may actually work with your PSU if you have 1 6pin plug.

Ram isn't too important (seeing how 2GB is good) but it wouldn't hurt to get more.



So, in my opinion..first to last being the most needed.

Mobo
CPU Cooler
GPU
PSU
Ram.
 
^pretty much what he said

5770 or 5750 would fit the bill nicely as they have low power consumption and they are small so they will fit in your case,

5750 will definetly run BFBC2 just fine, and the 5770 would give you even more future proofing

and if you happen to have a 6-pin PCIe power connector, your golden
 
I agree with all the above upgrades, but I would change the order up.

I would nab a new PSU (I reccomend an Antec Earthwatts 430W) and video card before I got a new motherboard (assuming your mobo has an open PCI-E slot). I think a 5750 gives more bang/buck than the 5770.

A Q6600 at stock should be able to run modern games. However, if it can't then I would grab a CPU cooler (I recommend an Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro or a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus both are around $30). Even on a cheap motherboard a Q6600 should overclock. I have got my Q6600 to run at 3.0 without and changes to the core voltage (It should go faster even on a cheap mobo).

After that I would upgrade the RAM, then the mobo.
 
He has a stock Dell motherboard, so overclocking is completely disabled. Which is why I said to get a new one.

This is actually the first time I've seen someone with a non overclocked Q6600.
 
Well if overclocking is disabled I recommend getting a new mobo before you get a new cooler :P
 
Actually I have it overclocked to 8000.6. It runs at 350 degrees C. J/k.

I had no idea it was a good proc for overclocking, I have never messed with overclocking... I guess I was afraid of frying something and not having to money to replace it.

What would you all suggest as a new mobo? Maybe something like this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131377

and this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4102858&cm_re=ati_5770-_-14-102-858-_-Product

oh and I do have a free full size case, so no worries if things are big.
 
Last edited:
Both of those look like a great buy.

If you wanted to run Crossfire, you should get about a 600 watt with 2 6 pin connectors.

It's not only a good overclocker, it's almost the best to date. Some/most people are able to easily push it to 4ghz with air cooling.


Overclocking isn't a must, but if you educate yourself a little bit and get familiar with your bios (on the new motherboard, because again overclocking is disabled on stock) you might have found yourself a new hobby :P
 
Wow, your specs look very similar to mine before I upgraded, I even had the same graphics card.

Definitely go for a new graphics card ASAP, the 2600XT, in my opinion, is a piece of crap (At least by comparison with it's nVidia competitor, and it's getting a bit old already). I really like ATIs products, but they kind of made a mistake with the 2000 series.

Definitely grab a new PSU that's at least 430w, and upgrading your RAM to 4gig is a good idea as well. With XP you'll only get 3.5 of the 4 gig since XP supports 4 gig of cumulative RAM including your graphics card, but that's good enough if you're sticking with XP Pro for a little while. Once you get a 64-bit OS, you'll utilize the full 4-gig.

I've never been a big Over-Clocker because I don't need it, but if you want it, you might as well go for a new mobo, otherwise you probably don't need to worry about it if you're not going for some extreme card, or crossfire or something. It can be fun though if you're interested in that kind of stuff, and the 6600 is great for it.
 
I would buy a used 8800GTX from someone.

What resolution do you game at ?

Look on ebay and craigslist to find the 8800GTX...

Any PCI-X16 card will probably work with that mobo, BUT, with having to stay at stock clocks on the CPU i would go for the 8800GTX, but thats just me..

If your gonna salvage parts from your machine and get a new mobo and make a whole new machine tells us your price range and we can go from there.

Obviously you would be staying Socket 775 with the Q6600, i would suggest the 750i FTW board from EVGA.. and maybe one of the new GTX 270 or gtx 275's or something ? And if your gonna overclock, etc, read up @ overclock.net

It's gonna be your best resource.
 
shadows5631 said:
He has a stock Dell motherboard, so overclocking is completely disabled. Which is why I said to get a new one.

This is actually the first time I've seen someone with a non overclocked Q6600.
Click to expand...

I have a non OC'ed Q6600.
 
Firesauce. I tend to lean towards Nvidia cards these days. I have owned mostly ATI cards, but have had problems lately with Catalyst. Also it seems more game companies are using Nvidia. the GTX 270 or 275 looks nice.

As far as that mobo, a few places I looked said it wasn't available anymore. ? don't know if they quit making it or what.
 
i have a step higher Quad Core i have the Q6700 2.66GHz OC'd at 3.0GHz with a cheap 50bux thermal take cooler and my temps are about 41-43 idle and 50-57 Underload. with a Asus Mobo, 8800GTS 640mb DDR3. but my video card over heats some time cause this case i have now airflow isnt the best (for my vidcard to be stable temps i have to keep side panel off). so for xmas i ordered the Cooler Maser HAF 922 from newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197
hopefully help with airflow cause this case i have now it crowded.

1009092028.jpg

^^ crowded clutter case D:
 
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