JP - Budget Itel CPU upgrade

[Romo_willwin99]

Hello,
I would like to upgrade CPU to Quad core if possible, my setup is as follows;

Dell Optiplex 745
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300
(2M Cache, 1.86 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)
2 gig stock ram ( 4 ram slots) more ram will be added soon
PCI express add in video card
Windows 7
Any help would be appreciated for this budget minded person.

 

[mi1ez]

You're running about the best CPU you can. Any upgrade would be so minor it would be a waste of money.

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_745techspecs.pdf

 

[Raiddinn]

I could tell you a quad core processor that would fit in the same LGA 775 slot the current E6300 is in, but I don't know if the motherboard would accept it.

Many OEM PC makers lock down their motherboards in various ways and one of those ways is to disallow processors above a certain number of cores.

The first thing I would do if I were you would be to go to the DELL forums and search threads to try and find out if anyone with the exact same kind of computer (Optiplex 745) has ever tried to put a quad core processor in there before and if so did it work.

If you can find someone that can verify that they have personally done it, then you could price check whatever sort they used and consider buying that exact one yourself. However, if it worked with 775 quad core processor X it would probably also work with 775 quad core processor Y also, if there were a better deal on a different sort.