Upgrading processor in Dell E521

Hi

I own a Dell E521 with a AMD Athlon x2 3600+ and I was thinking of upgrading the processor to a AMD 5600+, I'm fairly inexperienced at this kind of thing although I've made a few minor upgardes (new PSU and graphics card and sound card) and I was hoping some one can let me know if this is a viable option and if not why. I've done a little research on the net and it seems that other people have made a similar upgrade, but i'm mainly worried that the new chip with heatsink and fan will not fit in my case. I've located an 5600+ with same manufacturing process (65nm) and power requirements (65W) as my current processor - (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/144075/show_product_specifications?spectype=extended) is there anything else I should take into account?

Any help would be appreciated

Cheers

Thanks for your help

Would you say the 5600+ would be the limit to what i could upgrade to with the E521? I noticed on some of the Dell forums people saying that they'd succesfully installed a 6000+ or even 6400+. Just looking at AMD website it says that there is a 6000+ at 65nm although the power consumption is higher at 89W compared to 65W for my current CPU, do you think this would be a problem with my PSU which is a 450W Corsair VX?

Cheers

Cheers mate, thanks for your help

Good advice
My old system was an E521 and tried the X2 6000 89w, no go.

I am looking to upgrade my Dell in a similar manner. I do have some additional questions though. Should I look to get a CPU with its own heatsink or should I reuse the Dell one? My guess is I should re-use the existing Dell since I suspect other heatsink may not fit. If so, how easy is it to remove the CPU from the heatsink?

Thanks.

"not sure how easy it might be to replace the fan on the heatsink, however ..."

Wisecracker,

Sorry if this is a stupid question but when you say that it might not be easy to replace the fan do you mean that you would have to use a new fan with new processor? The processor (5600+) I was looking at has very similar power consumption and temperature specs to my old 3600+ so I thought that I might be able to re-use the same fan and heatsink. I was also worried that any new heatsink/fan would not fit in E521's case.

Thanks again

For the 521
If you have a Brisbane core the cpu/fan/heatsink assembly is rated @ 62w.
If you have a Windsor core it's rated for 89w.

I am in the same boat; wanting to upgrade the CPU in my E521 to the best one possible not really knowing how heat sink needs factor in. When i called Dell to see what my upgrade options were several months ago the Rep capped off the CPU limit at AMD 2X 5600, but it sounds like people have gone higher? I would like to go as high as I could, but it sounds like this may involve some extra Heatsink/cooling upgrades as well with the possibility of the neccesary cooling unit not fitting? Any advice on what the best CPU upgrade option would be and if there would also be a need to upgrade heatsink as well? I was pondering the AMD 5600+, but would like to go as high as the E521 can accomodate.