Maxing out Dell XPS 435MT
Posted: Sun Dec 06, 2020 11:18 am
As I have written elsewhere I bought this computer as refurb from Dell in June 2009 for under $700. It was a Core i7-920 with, uh, 4GB RAM, 750GB, and some other specs.
I have since done the following:
- Upgraded PSU when it died
- Added boot SSD (180GB Intel 520)
- Upgraded HDD from 750GB (it died) to a 4TB HGST
- Upgraded RAM several times. Latest is 24GB which may be the most it can handle, but maybe not. It's plenty for what it is anyway.
- Upgraded GPU. Adam gave me his old nVidia 8800GT. Originally was an ATI Radeon HD4670.
I have learned that the best CPU I can drop into this board is a Xeon W3580 which is the Xeon version of the i7-975. It should provide something around a 25% boost to CPU performance which is worthwhile. These old CPUs are available on eBay for $30 or less. I made an offer on one. We'll see.
I also tried my hand at SetFSB and also checked CPU temps running Prime95 to baseline. I am going to run the stock CPU cooler. Fully loaded it goes from mid-40s idling to like a peak of 72C or 74C when slightly overclocked. This should be fine. The overclock is more of an academic exercise. I will probably not really do this long term. Plus I have to use SetFSB so it has to be done each restart. Probably only provides a couple % improvement. Not worth it. If I jack up the FSB beyond a certain point the machine instantly locks up. So again, not worth screwing around for a tiny gain. Upgrading the CPU will be a big gain. For the record here is the setting in SetFSB that seemed to provide the highest core speed running Prime95: Room temp was around 67F at the time.
I have since done the following:
- Upgraded PSU when it died
- Added boot SSD (180GB Intel 520)
- Upgraded HDD from 750GB (it died) to a 4TB HGST
- Upgraded RAM several times. Latest is 24GB which may be the most it can handle, but maybe not. It's plenty for what it is anyway.
- Upgraded GPU. Adam gave me his old nVidia 8800GT. Originally was an ATI Radeon HD4670.
I have learned that the best CPU I can drop into this board is a Xeon W3580 which is the Xeon version of the i7-975. It should provide something around a 25% boost to CPU performance which is worthwhile. These old CPUs are available on eBay for $30 or less. I made an offer on one. We'll see.
I also tried my hand at SetFSB and also checked CPU temps running Prime95 to baseline. I am going to run the stock CPU cooler. Fully loaded it goes from mid-40s idling to like a peak of 72C or 74C when slightly overclocked. This should be fine. The overclock is more of an academic exercise. I will probably not really do this long term. Plus I have to use SetFSB so it has to be done each restart. Probably only provides a couple % improvement. Not worth it. If I jack up the FSB beyond a certain point the machine instantly locks up. So again, not worth screwing around for a tiny gain. Upgrading the CPU will be a big gain. For the record here is the setting in SetFSB that seemed to provide the highest core speed running Prime95: Room temp was around 67F at the time.