Changing a Motherboard and CPU - Dell E520

starzsimon · 12 Mar 2009 at 01:54

Hi, just wondering if it is possible to change the motherboard in a Dell E520 machine to something similar so that I can use one of the latest Core 2 Quad processors?

What would you recommend and will it be fully compatable with my system?

bremen1874 · 12 Mar 2009 at 02:18

That's a BTX machine (rather than the much more common ATX). It's more-or-less a dead end as far as replacement motherboards go.

As far as I know that machine uses a G965 chipset which should allow it to support at least some of the Core 2 chips. Downloading CPU-Z would allow you to check the chipset; and Google may turn up examples of what people have managed to get running successfully. It’s likely to be the older Core 2 chips which may, or may not, still be available through retail channels. A quick search did find at least one example of someone claiming to have a Q6600 running.

If you want a substantial upgrade then you’d probably be best off selling the existing system and starting again.

J.B · 12 Mar 2009 at 11:11

Dells are notorious for their funny motherboard sizes. If you really want to use a quad then an new motherboard + case is what you need, and transplant the RAM, CPU and opticals. Of course because it's Dell you'll also need a new PSU probably.

Then becuase you've changed the motherboard your OEM license that came with your deal will no longer be valid so you'll need a new license for the OS.

You have to ask yourself, what will you be using the quad core for? not many applications can actually thread across 4 cores.

starzsimon · 13 Mar 2009 at 14:58

Okay guys thanks for your help so far, if I was to transfer the RAM, HDD's, Opticals etc do you have any recommendations of motherboards, cases and psu's that I could buy ?

Fledge · 13 Mar 2009 at 15:49

I have an E520 myself
I upgraded the graphics card (had to cut a bit off so it would fit

) and the PSU.
They were simple enough.

Now I would really like a Q6600 too, so I went on the Dell forums and it turns out that the mobo doesn't support Core 2, unless you do some major BIOS configurations.
I don't have a clue where to go with that so I'm at a dead end for upgrading my machine. (Unless I'm after RAM).
You may want to check out the Dell forums yourself.

Hope this helps

Fledge.

bremen1874 · 13 Mar 2009 at 19:44

Dell list the E6400 and E6600 as compatible processors.

You don't have to look too hard to find many examples of people successfully running Q6600 and Q6700 processors. Flashing the BIOS to the latest version is probably a good idea before changing the processor, but that isn't difficult.