Upgrading CPU in DELL 745

Hi,

I have a DELL - 745 with intel Pentium-D 925 3.0GHz/4M/800/05A.

I have two options of processor upgrade:

1- intel dual core 2.2GHz E2200 /1M/800
2- intel dual core 2.5GHz E5200

want to confirm

a) will they work in my motherboard?

b) is is a better upgrade to pentium-D ( if not considering core2 Duo option) ?


DELL specs available for 745 says in processor category:

from this link:
http://www.yale.edu/desktech/YAD/specs/OptiPlex745.pdf

-Intel® Core™ 2 Duo 1066MHz FSB Socket T with Dual Core technology XD, EM64T, 2MB and up to 4MB L2 cache, and EIST3 (E6000 series)


-Intel® Pentium® D 800MHz FSB Socket T with Dual Core technology XD, EM64T, 2x2MB L2 cache, and EIST3 (900 series)


-Intel® Pentium® D 800MHz FSB Socket T with Dual Core technology XD, EM64T, 2x1MB L2 cache (800series)


-Intel® Pentium® 4 800MHz FSB Socket T with HT, XD, EM64T, and 1MB L2 cache (500 series)


-Intel® Celeron® D 533 MHz FSB Socket T with XD and EM64T (300 series)





Please suggest

The e2200 will work for sure. Someone in anandtech's for sale/trade section has an e4300 for only $40 shipped that will also work. Your old dell heatsink should be adequate. Another person has the e6550 for $65, but it's too new to work with your motherboard bios; same for the e5200. Use core2 duo; always better than the old p4 cpus.

I had an e4300 pin modded to run at 1066 (2400 overclocked). It worked fine on my hp motherboard. Pin modded cpus are nice as they don't effect the memory settings. But the same cpu wouldn't even post on my asrock boards. But the copper tape is easy to remove; just scrape it off with a knife. If you want to learn more, just type "pin mod" with your favorite search engine. The copper tape is at some Fry's locations for $2.99.

Only the 800 or 1066 core2 duo cpus will work with your dell. The 6550 and 6750 are 1333 fsb, so you can't use either one. You can also check ewiz (superbiz) and starmicro for cpu deals. I would recommend the e4600 for $93 at starmicro. And the copper tape pin mod can be used on many boards without changing any of the board bios settings. On my hp board, the e4300 booted up at 1066 every time, and cpu-z confirmed the settings. Remember also that if your board has it, eist (speed step) will automatically run your cpu at a lower setting whenever possible to save energy (dropping the cpu multiplier to 6.0) until you do some gaming or other processes that require full power. Speed step is Intel software built into the board bios, but can be disabled if you want. I recommend you use it. It works almost flawlessly.

^+1

Are you all sure the E5200 will not work in the 745? I had a new 760 die and I was able to keep the CPU (E5200). This chip is 800 fsb and figured it would work but I don't want to kill my 745 tower buy installing it. I enjoy the fact that I can run a 9800GT (eco), 4Gb of RAM, and two 74GB Dell Raptors in RAID on this box but the Pentium D945 is killing me.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated.