Dell E510 CPU Upgrade?

[cschweizer]

Hi,
I have A Dell E510 Desktop and I would like to upgrade the CPU any Help would be great. I can't find any information for it.
The socket is a 775 and it has a Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz CPU. Looking for a duel core CPU that will work on this motherboard..

Thanks Chris..

 

[nathannitz]

Hi,
I have A Dell E510 Desktop and I would like to upgrade the CPU any Help would be great. I can't find any information for it.
The socket is a 775 and it has a Intel Pentium 4 3.0GHz CPU. Looking for a duel core CPU that will work on this motherboard..

Thanks Chris..

Hello Chris,
I have an E510 with the same Pentium 4-HT CPU. I plan to upgrade too, and the newest CPU that'll work in this is a Pentium D. Sadly it's not a great improvement as it's based on the old NetBurst architecture and the Pentium 4, but it will still be an improvement. I believe any Pentium D (not Pentium Dual-Core) should work. The one P-D I know will work is the Pentium D-945 (4MB cache, 3.4Ghz, 800Mhz FSB). This has been used by many people to upgrade their E510's or 5150's.

eBay is a great place to find Pentium D's, and you may find a good deal on the 945. Newegg also has re-certified Pentium D's available, but the 945 is out of stock. There is a Pentium D-820 (2MB cache, 2.8ghz, 800Mhz FSB) in stock at newegg though. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=19-116-389&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo


I hope this helps you out. I think I may pick one of these up now too since they are a pretty cheap upgrade. I use my E510 for light gaming.

 

[computerpartsforless]

Hello Chris,
I have an E510 with the same Pentium 4-HT CPU. I plan to upgrade too, and the newest CPU that'll work in this is a Pentium D. Sadly it's not a great improvement as it's based on the old NetBurst architecture and the Pentium 4, but it will still be an improvement. I believe any Pentium D (not Pentium Dual-Core) should work. The one P-D I know will work is the Pentium D-945 (4MB cache, 3.4Ghz, 800Mhz FSB). This has been used by many people to upgrade their E510's or 5150's.

eBay is a great place to find Pentium D's, and you may find a good deal on the 945. Newegg also has re-certified Pentium D's available, but the 945 is out of stock. There is a Pentium D-820 (2MB cache, 2.8ghz, 800Mhz FSB) in stock at newegg though. Link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=19-116-389&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo


I hope this helps you out. I think I may pick one of these up now too since they are a pretty cheap upgrade. I use my E510 for light gaming.

Thanks For The Input That's Just What I Needed To Know.

Thanks Again Chris..

 

[johnrysf]

Thanks For The Input That's Just What I Needed To Know.

Thanks Again Chris..

To those (still!) trying to answer the same question (it's now August, 2012), maybe I can help (and you do not need to read this entire longish thread):

Just spent many hours looking for an answer to the same question. I'd say, based on Dell's website and several forums, that the "Presler" Pentium D P-945 3.4GHz SL9QQ is the best you can do in a Dimension 5150/E510. One forum respondent said an E520 came later, and it can use a Core 2 Duo. That's probably true, but the best you can do in a 5150/E510 is a D-945.

The D-945 is dual core, btw - not single core as stated earlier in this thread. Pentium 4's are single core/HT CPU's, while Pentium D's are dual core/no HT CPU's. As recently as last year, several forum writers have said that the D-945 is relatively strong, by contemporary standards, in the E510. At

http://ark.intel.com/

Intel has a nice list of ALL Intel desktop CPU's EVER, with major spec's. You pick CPU's you wish to compare, hit go, and compare. You can also list all the CPU's that are compatible with an Intel motherboard's (MB's) 945G Express Chipset, and there are a lot, though they don't necessarily work with the E510's BIOS, right?. Your E510 CPU candidate search criteria needs to include:

■Pentium D family, or lower/older. I'm tempted, as others are, to go higher/newer. Forum writers say Dell's BIOS is a limiter, and newer chip families require different power management.

**I still wonder a little about newer CPU's. Here, at

http://ark.intel.com/products/chipsets/8765

is the list I generated for CPU's that are compatible with an Intel MB's 945G Express Chipset. There are a lot of newer CPU's that fall within the parameters of an Intel PLGA775 MB. Just gotta' wonder if a couple of the higher up's might work in our Dell E510 BIOS.**

■Socket PLGA775.

■Power supply limit. My E510 has the standard 305W PS; the P4-630 draws 84W.

■■800MHz FSB. Dell spec's say motherboard is capable of 1,066 Mhz, and both 400MHz and 533Mhz RAM are supported. I looked at a CPU in the next higher "Extreme" CPU family that uses a 1,066MHz FSB, and saw that, otherwise, it meets our spec's. If you're curious, brave, and don't have enough to do, I guess you could thumb your nose at all these Dell and forum "experts", and try a 1,066MHz FSB CPU. (Hmmm...)

My search ended up with a list of 4 top CPU upgrades, including one P4 and three PD's. Of these, the best CPU is the "Presler" Pentium D P-945 3.4GHz SL9QQ. I'm about to buy a used one on Amazon for $14.51, including shipping. Just gotta' see what the old E510 can do before I give it away to some low income folks. (Of course, there IS that bigger PS/1,066 FSB idea...)

A short story of affection for this obsolete old box: I did just upgrade its Win7 x86 to Win8 x64 Release Preview - if you look carefully on the Dell support website, you'll see the E510 isn't supposed to be able to run Win7. It runs Win7 just fine (apparently Win8, too), has been an XP x86 Media Center Edition (MCE)/Win7 Ultimate dual-boot since Win7 (Ultimate) Release Candidate (RC). It's my library - on both OS's - and it's about to burp up it's content to my new 3.0TB NAS.

The E510 has also been a great media center/DVR-PVR - like lots of reviewers, I like MCE a lot. I find it interesting that MCE was an option, and cost extra with XP. Then it was free in most editions of Win7, and now, with Win8, MS is back to making it an option, and charging extra for it. Plus, while every reviewer I've ever read has said that MCE is great, and they love it - how often do you hear "love" with relationship to MS products? - MS never promotes it. Is MS, for some reason, trying to kill MCE in Win8? They say the strategy of making MCE an option makes Win8 less expensive for people who don't want it. Maybe. I'm often suspicious of the goings-on within the Evil Empire. Maybe they want your xBox to be your media center.

I (literally) picked up the E510 a few years ago when it was (literally) kicked to the curb with a virtually identical Dimension 5150 by neighboring university co-ed's on the way out to summer fun (maybe they were also on the way to grownup life). MS was kind enough to convert my Win7 RC to a legit license. Perhaps I'm attached to this old box because I've done tons of stuff to it/with it, learned a lot with it, and it's never let me down, even when dropped and otherwise abused. And it's all been free.

Though there is that bigger PS/1,066MHz idea...

 

[mt51]

Hi johnrysf,

so glad to have found your Aug 2012 update. I have the same comp, with 2.5GB ram and am wondering this myself. Did the Pentium D-945 upgrade work for you on the E510 motherboard?

Thanks
mt51

To those (still!) trying to answer the same question (it's now August, 2012), maybe I can help (and you do not need to read this entire longish thread):

Just spent many hours looking for an answer to the same question. I'd say, based on Dell's website and several forums, that the "Presler" Pentium D P-945 3.4GHz SL9QQ is the best you can do in a Dimension 5150/E510. One forum respondent said an E520 came later, and it can use a Core 2 Duo. That's probably true, but the best you can do in a 5150/E510 is a D-945.

The D-945 is dual core, btw - not single core as stated earlier in this thread. Pentium 4's are single core/HT CPU's, while Pentium D's are dual core/no HT CPU's. As recently as last year, several forum writers have said that the D-945 is relatively strong, by contemporary standards, in the E510. At

http://ark.intel.com/

Intel has a nice list of ALL Intel desktop CPU's EVER, with major spec's. You pick CPU's you wish to compare, hit go, and compare. You can also list all the CPU's that are compatible with an Intel motherboard's (MB's) 945G Express Chipset, and there are a lot, though they don't necessarily work with the E510's BIOS, right?. Your E510 CPU candidate search criteria needs to include:

■Pentium D family, or lower/older. I'm tempted, as others are, to go higher/newer. Forum writers say Dell's BIOS is a limiter, and newer chip families require different power management.

**I still wonder a little about newer CPU's. Here, at

http://ark.intel.com/products/chipsets/8765

is the list I generated for CPU's that are compatible with an Intel MB's 945G Express Chipset. There are a lot of newer CPU's that fall within the parameters of an Intel PLGA775 MB. Just gotta' wonder if a couple of the higher up's might work in our Dell E510 BIOS.**

■Socket PLGA775.

■Power supply limit. My E510 has the standard 305W PS; the P4-630 draws 84W.

■■800MHz FSB. Dell spec's say motherboard is capable of 1,066 Mhz, and both 400MHz and 533Mhz RAM are supported. I looked at a CPU in the next higher "Extreme" CPU family that uses a 1,066MHz FSB, and saw that, otherwise, it meets our spec's. If you're curious, brave, and don't have enough to do, I guess you could thumb your nose at all these Dell and forum "experts", and try a 1,066MHz FSB CPU. (Hmmm...)

My search ended up with a list of 4 top CPU upgrades, including one P4 and three PD's. Of these, the best CPU is the "Presler" Pentium D P-945 3.4GHz SL9QQ. I'm about to buy a used one on Amazon for $14.51, including shipping. Just gotta' see what the old E510 can do before I give it away to some low income folks. (Of course, there IS that bigger PS/1,066 FSB idea...)

A short story of affection for this obsolete old box: I did just upgrade its Win7 x86 to Win8 x64 Release Preview - if you look carefully on the Dell support website, you'll see the E510 isn't supposed to be able to run Win7. It runs Win7 just fine (apparently Win8, too), has been an XP x86 Media Center Edition (MCE)/Win7 Ultimate dual-boot since Win7 (Ultimate) Release Candidate (RC). It's my library - on both OS's - and it's about to burp up it's content to my new 3.0TB NAS.

The E510 has also been a great media center/DVR-PVR - like lots of reviewers, I like MCE a lot. I find it interesting that MCE was an option, and cost extra with XP. Then it was free in most editions of Win7, and now, with Win8, MS is back to making it an option, and charging extra for it. Plus, while every reviewer I've ever read has said that MCE is great, and they love it - how often do you hear "love" with relationship to MS products? - MS never promotes it. Is MS, for some reason, trying to kill MCE in Win8? They say the strategy of making MCE an option makes Win8 less expensive for people who don't want it. Maybe. I'm often suspicious of the goings-on within the Evil Empire. Maybe they want your xBox to be your media center.

I (literally) picked up the E510 a few years ago when it was (literally) kicked to the curb with a virtually identical Dimension 5150 by neighboring university co-ed's on the way out to summer fun (maybe they were also on the way to grownup life). MS was kind enough to convert my Win7 RC to a legit license. Perhaps I'm attached to this old box because I've done tons of stuff to it/with it, learned a lot with it, and it's never let me down, even when dropped and otherwise abused. And it's all been free.

Though there is that bigger PS/1,066MHz idea...

 

[johnrysf]

Hi johnrysf,

so glad to have found your Aug 2012 update. I have the same comp, with 2.5GB ram and am wondering this myself. Did the Pentium D-945 upgrade work for you on the E510 motherboard?

Thanks
mt51

Sorry, not yet installed. But stay tuned. A little story:

My one humble working laptop is busy. In desktops, my #1 PC (i5-2500k-based) and #2 PC (i7-920-based) are in the midst of rebuilds, which leaves the #3 PC - the E510 - carrying a heavy load. It's pretty fast - relatively singing/quite snappy, even with 15-20 Chrome tabs, plus an app or two, open. Now running Windows 8 Release Preview, x64, 3.0MB RAM. It's fun for me to see the old box so fast and stable. btw, a detail: 1-2 forum writers mentioned that, with the D-945, you'll be prompted by BIOS, and need to hit, F2 during POST.

When I have #1 and/or #2 PC(s) up again, I'll try the D-945. Assuming it works great, I'll probably max out RAM at 4.0GB, maybe upgrade graphics, newer/bigger HDD, add an SSD (?!) Prices are coming down on SSD's - I think we're at an inflection point, and now have three ready to install - and everything else is dirt cheap! My #4 PC is a 7-year old, AMD-64 Venice-based (single core) box that is very close to the E510 in performance. I'm now planning to give it the same treatment as the E510 is getting.

Hope we both have good experiences. This 7-year old, middling performance, mid-priced attempt at a Media Center by Dell continues to surprise me, and, in my research, I found a large number of folks interested in upgrading their 5150/E510's in the last ~3 years. I'll be sure to update this thread with my results.

Good luck!

 

[johnrysf]

Hi johnrysf,

so glad to have found your Aug 2012 update. I have the same comp, with 2.5GB ram and am wondering this myself. Did the Pentium D-945 upgrade work for you on the E510 motherboard?

Thanks
mt51

Hi mt51:

Hope you've enabled e-mail notification, and get this. Wonder if you've upgraded your E510.

The Pentium D-945 is working great in my E510. Have to hit F1, when prompted, during POST. So what? I often wish to have 15-20 browser tabs open, plus an app or two running, and maybe watch a video. The OEM P4-630 3.0 GHz single core/HT CPU, running XP Media Center Edition x86 or Win 7 Ultimate x64, just couldn't handle this. I had to restrain myself, or, simply stated, it would bog down and then just freeze. Oops, re-boot time.

With the D-945, my E510 didn't become amazingly fast, but it is notably quicker, and - the main thing - it now takes anything I throw at it, and barely slows down. While many older chips cannot run Win 8 due to lack of 2-3 more recent hardware enhancements that it requires, Win 8 runs great on the D-945. Very, very nice $14.51 improvement, obsolescence delayed.

Purchased at very good sale prices, I have a 256 GB OCZ Vertex 4, a 120 GB Corsair Force GT, and a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT that are slated to go in newer PC's. On the E510, a SATA II (no SATA III on the E510) bay is available, and Win 8, plus my current app's, take up less than 60 GB.

Last week, I saw a one-day sale on a 128 GB OCZ Vertex 3 for ~$56(!) - kicking myself I didn't jump on it. Next step, now definitely worth the fun: SSD, on sale. Then, down the road, maybe a bigger, newer, faster HDD.

Hope you're having fun.

 

[notlaw69]

Hi mt51:

Hope you've enabled e-mail notification, and get this. Wonder if you've upgraded your E510.
*****
Purchased at very good sale prices, I have a 256 GB OCZ Vertex 4, a 120 GB Corsair Force GT, and a 500 GB Seagate Momentus XT that are slated to go in newer PC's. On the E510, a SATA II (no SATA III on the E510) bay is available, and Win 8, plus my current app's, take up less than 60 GB.

Last week, I saw a one-day sale on a 128 GB OCZ Vertex 3 for ~$56(!) - kicking myself I didn't jump on it. Next step, now definitely worth the fun: SSD, on sale. Then, down the road, maybe a bigger, newer, faster HDD.

Hope you're having fun.

Hey johnrysf -
I've been playing with an e510 for about 6-7 months now, got it from buddy who locked himself out with admin psswd, so this unit has really low miles on it. I just read this whole thread, loving it. I'm right along the same thoughts, though I'm amateurish at rebuilds. Yeah, this is my first. Still have OEM 80GB HDD, added WD black 1TB. Upped the RAM from 2x512 to 3GB mixed. Didn't know at the time that that drops me from dual to single channel. Now I've ordered 4x1GB matching G.Skill from Newegg, and an 80GB Intel ssd from ebay. Both should be here this week. BTW, a tech rep from Crucial verified what Dell tech told me via emails: This 5150 WILL SUPPORT 2GB per slot RAM, for 8GB total. I was really tempted to fill it up, but restrained myself since I'm still thumping with XP, and it won't recognize it. If I go with Win7x64 this summer, maybe then I'll max out RAM. How did things go with your project?

 

[justajohn]

Hey all. I am very new to this type of thing. I am not a big forum freak, but I have found this website and particularly this thread to be an invaluable resource, so I signed up. I have an e510 and though I'm not overly thrilled with the performance I don't have an unlimited budget... so it's what I've got... for right now. And it works.
I have searched and searched the last 2 months on anything I could about squeezing the most I can from this old box for a few bucks and this is where I've gotten my best answers thus far. I had the oem Pentium 4 630 3.0 ghz and I did manage to get a $10 shipping included Pentium D 945 SL9QQ and installed it with satisfactory results. It does do the 'incompatible cpu f1 f2' boot prompt at restart but works flawlessly otherwise. Not super jump for joy happy with the improvements in the processing power but I am just happy knowing I have the best I can get in it and it didn't cost me much of anything. And on top of that it wasn't a difficult operation to complete. I didn't fry anything! YAY
After the swap I did notice the fan was throttling up quite a bit more then the old Pentium 4 used to make it. I actually didn't know the fan could go this fast, or this loud. The older cpu didn't ever make it work this hard. I was expecting this due to the higher running temp of the Pentium D though. I installed another fan to the back of my case to create a rather nice windtunnel effect and it works much better at keeping it from having to crank the fan to full so often. Every once in a while it will run at maximum but not nearly as long as it used to with only the single fan running... and this mostly only during more intense processor functioning. Mostly during games. And yes it is VERY loud. Just another thing to consider if your going the Pentium D route. I can only imagine what it is going to sound like this summer.
I stole the second fan from an other older Dell Dimension e310 sitting in storage. I had dragged it out and was going to put the better 630 Pentium 4 in it since it had a 2.8ghz Pentium 4 521 oem but then got to thinking why, it's just going to sit in a corner. So I scavenged parts from it instead. I also grabbed the multicard reader out of the e310 and threw it into the e510 as well as 2 256mb ram modules upping my total to 2.5gig which I wonder why I never thought about that before.
And this to notlaw69
Thanks for the info on the ram with the 5150... just wondering if the e510 is able to run 2g ram modules in each slot as well as the 5150 can. Maybe you can give us feedback on how that went if you ever try it. I thought I was limited to 4 1gb pc2-4200 modules being that that's all I can find that Dell recommends on the web anyways. Right now I am still running winXP MCE 32 so I wasn't worried about trying to go above 3 gigs of ram, but with the info I saw from johnrysf as well about running win 8 without trouble I think I will try to go that route. I am not a super tech person and I know I could just go out and get a new cheap compy all together with probably much better specs. But this way is just so much funner and quite a bit cheaper. And it's nice to know that a 7-8 year old clunker can still hold it's own... or at least be passable given a few tweaks.

I'll list my boxes specs here for others to hopefully get some use from my experience thus far and since what really works seems to be lacking in so many other forums

Dimension E510
Microsoft XP x86 Media Center Edition Service Pack 3
Pentium D 945 SL9QQ 3.4Ghz
on Dell 0WG261 mainboard with Intel i945p/pl/g/gz Rev. A2 chipset
Intel 82801GB(ICH7/R) Rev. A1
Bios Dell A07
2.5G ram pc2-4200
oem 305w psu
oem ATI Radeon 256mb X600 graphics

This isn't the end of my saga of making the old box a little peppier next is a beefier power supply and hopefully a Radeon 6670 maybe if I can find one cheap enough. More ram and an OS upgrade will have to wait for a bit.
Cheers to all who are on similar sagas and thanks for those who helped me get the much needed info here.

-John

 

[notlaw69]

Hello justajohn: I erroniously said the "5150 WILL SUPPORT 2GB per slot RAM". It's the e510 that will, which is what you and I have. And the e510 will also handle up to PC2-6400, faster than the -5300 mine had and the -4200 in yours. So yes, I now have the 4 sticks of PC-6400 x 1GB from G.Skill in mine, and it is now running dual-channel, and it is definitely quicker on program loads. I even see it on boot up, though not until XP loads my desktop, but the icons and little taskbar in bottom right do come up faster now. I have the 80GB SSD from Intel, the one recommended for XP, but I haven't put it in yet. I'm now debating on waiting another week and getting Win7 home so I can load it fresh to ssd, and put my data and lesser used programs on the HDD. I've read that is a good method, and I've got the setup for it... Plus, Win7 is better/faster than XP, and it natively supports trim for ssd. XP doesn't. The Intel SSD was recommended for XP mostly because their "toolbox" had good support software to nearly make up for no trim. It's killing me having to wait , I've got the little thing staring at me, begging to be cloned. But wait I will, and I'll update when it's done.
You mentioned you might upgrade the PSU and GPU, I think the same. Was looking at low-end Radeons, but my nephew (who's an accomplished builder) cautioned that Radeon drivers typically are tricky to install. Have you heard of this? And what PSU's were you looking at?

 

[notlaw69]

Well phooey! Shows what I know. I remembered reading somewhere my FSB was 533MHz, but PC2-6400 is 800MHz. Cringe. I downloaded and ran CPU-Z (free at www.cpuid.com), sure enough, my new RAM is clocked down to 533. It wasn't a waste of money, since price was about the same, if not exactly, but just impresses upon me the difference between "uses" and "supports" -6400. Nooby mistake, sorry. Thanks though for the info on fan revving up, I've got a Pentium D SL9QQ coming from ebay now, <$9. Glad yours went in easy, makes me feel better about stuff I've never done.

 

[justajohn]

Thank you for the info again notlaw69. Pc2-5300 @533 is better then I was thinking I could do now. I'd be happy running 8gigs if I decided to go with a better OS down the road.

Well I'd hate to be hijacking this thread for everything under the sun about e510/5150 Dells. LOL So I'll refrain from going wild on all the little intricacies. I think a new thread needs to be started called 'sadistic people who love to torture themselves to get the nearly immposible to work - with an e510.' Has a nice ring to it. So sad that the benefits aren't really worth the effort... some people might see this whole project that way. It's like I said before I have the computer and I am happy using it till I really have to go out and get something completely new. Everything has it's limits. When that happens I guess I'll be missing this old snazzy white box.

But that being said and back to the point of this thread the Pentium D is super stable with this specific board and my specific chipset. It is a good viable upgrade that can be supported without any real negative effects. As I said I am not a super tech guy. This was my first CPU swap and it did go smoothly. With only one hiccup.

So I guess getting to that. The issue I had with the fan rev has been nagging at me and I was too busy to take the 15 minutes the last 4 days to disconnect and pop open the box to really take a peak till yesterday. I just was thinking the super loud turbine whine that was coming from the case by my feet could only mean some sort of disaster was imminent, besides being annoying.
Having opened the case I took the time to remove the heatsink and inspect the cpu itself and the heatsink patch where the thermal compound I applied had spread to see if I could detect anything that could give a clue to the problem. I guess I should have suspected from the beginning that's where I would find my problem. When I installed the new processor and put it back together I guess I was just a little too hasty. (I remember thinking I didn't want to torque it too tight. )It turns out I hadn't thoroughly re-seated the heatsink because the thermal paste hadn't spread uniformly. it was higher on the screw down side meaning it wasn't providing full contact on that end. So I cleaned off the surfaces and reapplied new thermal compound then shut her back up. Snugly this time. Since I had the case open I took the time to move the fan I had put on the rear of the case directly to the interior heatsink mount. Zipties worked great for this. So now there is the original fan pulling air in and the new (old) one right on the other side of the heatsink sucking air through and out and into the case. Surprisingly that extra fan adds quite a significant amount of flow to the case at normal fan speeds. I thought even if the excessive fan revving wasn't completely related to the heatsink seating perfectly this couldn't hurt anything. It's how I wanted to install it the first time But I figured it would be a huge hassle at the time if I needed to remove the heatsink for any issue. This is exactly the case as it will be adding the extra step of having to snip the zip ties and remove the fan before I can get the heatsink shroud assembly off. It is extremely snug in there with this fan floating just centimeters away from the northbridge heat sink. But now I know the processor is a go it's not a huge concern anymore so it's at home where I put it. I am so glad I did this. The fans are completely smooth and almost completely silent again. When I get the other psu I may also buy one other fan to add to the rear of the case for improved exhaust flow. I'm sure that wouldn't hurt as well.

So all in all it should run smoothly with just the single OEM fan if just a tad warmer without a loud whirring of your fans as long as you don't make my same beginner mistake. And if there is a loud whining fan rev it may be due to the same issue. It's nice to know the potential of the fan is barely really even tapped under normal operation... cuz when those things are wide open you know it... that fan can move some air if it needs to.

Now as far as Radeon drivers and The Catalyst suite go for those cards yes it is a pain. At least for what I have experienced with the archaic x600 I have. You have to completely remove all drivers and traces from your C: drive and all strings in your registry relating to the card. Any traces of the old card should be swept out before installing a fresh driver. Upgrading an existing install doesn't seem to be the smoothest operation. You may not even really know you have a problem you just may not be running optimally unless you do this. I had this problem when I first clean installed this OS on my system... didn't think it would be such a pain... it took me a few weeks of fidgeting with till I found this site which pretty much broke down the specifics of what was needed to fix the problem and that was only because I was getting back into playing an older game (Elder Scrolls 3 - Morrowind) and I was trying to tweak my fps to the best I could get. I hadn't even known that there was such an issue with the drivers but I had a little problem with ATI's catalyst interface when trying to update my drivers. When I would attempt to update drivers it would give an error during install and state it could not find a specified path and thus could not upgrade. The magic answer came from here ---> ATI-Tweak
For this extremely outdated card the support is hard to find. Newer ones should not be such an issue.

Hope that helps.
-John

 

[justajohn]

I've searched a good bit since starting out on this mission to better my computer and I have to say that there is not very much documentation out there that gives a very definitive answer on just what is the top that can be used for E510/5150's. Definitely nothing from a certified source... just a bunch of guy's who put in the grunt work of research and trial and plenty of error sharing there own pitfalls or successes. I did just stumble on this tonight and the last couple of posts >here< pretty much sum it all up pretty well. You could read the whole thread as it has some good info throughout. And this was all back in 2008. The Pentium D 945 very well could be the end all of the performance level you will ever see with this specific box. I am glad I did at least a little research before diving in. I am so glad I didn't waste any money on something that would not work. I am very thankful that there's plenty of folks willing to put there experiences out there and share what they know.


So the next step is a cheapish yet beefier 500w ATX power supply and a Radeon HD 6670 for me. I'm not a power gamer and that should suit this Dell pretty well without making it look like I frankenstiened it. Ziptied fans to interior heatsink shrouds can be our secret. And it should also keep my upgrade budget to around $60-75 total. Assuming I get good bids on eBay.
With that complete I will then save up for an OS upgrade down the line. I think I will just stick to 4 modules of 1G pc2-5300 just to be safe. And that will get me by until I'm ready to go out and build a less limited box.

So that's about that.
Cheers!