Dell Inspiron 545 CPU Upgrade

thesprazzler

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
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0
10,510
I've got a dell inspiron 545 currently with 6gb of ram but only a pentium e5300 2.6Ghz processor. I would like to upgrade my processor and was wondering which processors could work on my system. Please help. :)
 
E5300 is Core 2, so it'll probably support some of the Core 2 Duos and maybe some of the Core 2 Quads. I'll check Dell's site for a CPU compatibility list to be more sure. However, just to ask prior to anything more, are you sure that the CPU you have now is too slow? If not, then you can say what most of the stuff you'll do on the computer is and we can make a recommendation from there.
 

thesprazzler

Honorable
Mar 24, 2013
3
0
10,510


Ok thanks :) I've put in more RAM but a new processor sounds likes there's a little more to go wrong...
 
So, the first question is regarding your form factor, there could be 2 - MT, mini tower and ST, slim tower. Check the pictures below and I identify which one you have

4466.07.jpg


So if you have MT - the Inspiron 545 uses socket 775 and the only quads that it appears to have been configured with MT were the Q8300, Q9300 and Q9400.

Now little comparison E5300 benchmark is 1077, Q9400 benchmark is 3455, so this is very good upgrade.
There is only one small caveat - Q9400 is 95 watt and E5300 is 65 watt, I am checking now CPU cooler compatibility.

Found it, ha, it was so easy - Dell uses the same CPU coolers across many Inspiron models, here we go.

E5300, 65 watt (yours) is using C957N/ 0C957N, cheapest new for $19.84
c957noverview800.jpg

Q9400, 95 watt (maximum possible, according to credible reports) is using C955, can be found for only $16.24
dellk078dc955ncpuheatsi.jpg


Now, I will look into RAM in the next post.

P.S. I seen you posted already, slow down, Inspiron is the easiest to upgrade Dell cheap model, others like Optiplex are much more difficult.



 
RAM. Officially supported is Crucial memory, so according to Crucial Inspiron 545 can have up to 8 GB of memory, look in this link http://www.crucial.com/store/listparts.aspx?model=Inspiron%20545&Cat=RAM
You can get this cheaper elsewhere. You might have problems with other RAM manufacturers, I use Corsair with Inspiron 570 and it was OK, also avoid fancy models and especially overclocked memory, use standard speed. Actually, I just took a look around and found that from the new parts Crucial site is the cheapest, cheaper would be only eBay.

Any more questions? I think I answered all most important.

If you have questions regarding Video Card, please state what approximately you are looking for, power supply is easy upgradable as well.