INSPIRON 530 ; what can you do with this ?

I am not a dell technician but can answer some of these for you:

1= Cannot overclock the 4600(only certain xps systems can be overclocked)

4= Dell will ship one of each a DVI and a VGA.

5= from what I have read the 300 should really go about 400 watts due to the under rating.

Hope these few answers are helpful.

1-  thanks for these bits of information, but im wondering why i couldnt o/c it using clockgen

http://files.extremeoverclocking.com/file.php?f=189

My previous computer was an acer , and i had a athlon X2 3800 @ 2.0 stock in it, and couldnt overclock it from the bios ; so i tried to o/c it with clockgen, which allowed me a software overclocking from windows to 2.2 Ghz with the stock heatsink and fan.

My goal is just to add 200 or 300 mhz to the E4600 using clockgen like i obtained a 200mhz boost on my previous acer computer. And i ve read that the E4600 is a great cpu for overclocking...

4- thanks for confirming that i will get a dvi cable too in the box.

5-  I have read that some people succesfully replaced the integrated gfxcard with a HD3850 from amd, without changing the PSU.

on a side notes; found some interesting informations about the mobo and psu in the inspiron series;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron

"Compatibility Note: There are actually two versions of the Inspiron 530 in production, which are not differentiated in their specifications. When ordered with an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor, the 530 is equipped with a FoxConn G33m03 motherboard and a LiteOn 375W power supply. When ordered in any other configuration, the 530 is typically equipped with a FoxConn G33m02 motherboard and a 300W Bestec power supply. The G33m02 and G33m03 are essentially identical except for the power regulation section of the motherboard. Essentially, the G33m02 is a depopulated (cheaper) version of the board which only has 6 voltage regulator IC's as opposed to the 11 voltage regulators on the G33m03. In practice, this means that the G33m02 version of the motherboard is physically incapable of providing enough current to operate the Intel Q6600 CPU. In essence, if you do not order the Quad Core processor with the system initially, you will NOT be able to upgrade it to one later."

ok from the tons of things ive read on other messageboards, the ultimate upgrade for a dell inspiron 530

 is to use clockgen to overclock the CPU (if it's a C2D) ,  you can add 200 to 300 mh;

and to replace your gfx card (if it's a HD2400 OR 2600) by a HD3850 ; but you may need a special conector converter to link your 3850 to the power supply.

Even if the PSU is only 300watts, a lot of people succesfully use HD3850 with their inspiron 530.

So i'm going to buy one an try all of this,then i ll come back to testify if it works or not.

1) Clockgen works for some Dells but it depends on if your motherboard has a crystal oscillator which clockgen can access; so it is hit and miss.

You can overclock the CPU using a BSEL/Pin mod though.  The E4600 runs at a speed of 800MHz FSB QDR.  If you do a BSEL/Pin mod it will bump the FSB QDR up to 1,066MHz which means that E4600 would go from 2.4GHz to 3.2GHz.

Overclocking your system WILL VOID THE WARRANTY!

Hey ty_ger,

How is one able to tell if their motherboard has a crystal oscillator, or does one just have to try and hope for the best?

I have no interest in overclocking, just curious. :smileywink:

tks for your reply;

i m not going to overclock it using a hardware modification; ill try my luck with clockgen for a small/moderate overclocking.

im surprised nobody overclocked a FoxConn G33m02 + C2D -based  inspiron 530 using clockgen yet though!

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@vincerator wrote:

tks for your reply;

 

i m not going to overclock it using a hardware modification; ill try my luck with clockgen for a small/moderate overclocking.

 

im surprised nobody overclocked a FoxConn G33m02 + C2D -based  inspiron 530 using clockgen yet though!

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I don't think overclocking your CPU from 2.4GHz to 2.7GHz (if you are lucky) with clockgen is really worth your time and effort.  We are only talking about a little over 12% overclock there and I doubt you will even notice the difference.

The BSEL/Pin mod holds a lot more potential for you.  I am not recommending you modify your sytem or overclock it because I don't want to be held liable for anything which occurs.  All I am stating is that if one was to want to overclock that sort of system, the BSEL/Pin mod would be the best way to do it.

If you bumped up from 800MHz FSB to 1,066MHz FSB you would increase your CPU clock by 800MHz which is a really nice overclock which you actually will notice.  We are talking about a 33% overclock there and that number is just about perfect because that is about the limit of the overclocking potential of that processor.

Once again OVERCLOCKING WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!

This is how you would go about doing it:

http://www.overclock.net/intel-cpus/341123-intel-bsel-vid-mod-guide.html

Quick pictures (read the guide above, don't just refer to what I write here!)

800MHz to 1,066MHz FSB QDR mod (don't do the 800 to 1,333MHz with the stock air cooler!):

Other people who have done the 800 to 1,066MHz mod also stated that they had to do the volt mod.

Here is the volt mod (only do the 1.4V mod for the 800 to 1,066MHz mod -- not the 1.45v mod):

You'll notice in the second set of pictures that they drew the chip from the top side when they show the mod being done.  But it is incorrect.  Reference your pins from the bottom side.  This is what your chip would look like once you did the 800MHz to 1,066MHz mod and did the 1.4v mod:

The above is the full mod as you would see it as you are looking at the pins.  What you have to do is draw a line with electrically conductive ink (rear window defroster repair kit) between the pins marked in red.  Only connect the pins shown connected and not any others.

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@Mars1100 wrote:

Hey ty_ger,

How is one able to tell if their motherboard has a crystal oscillator, or does one just have to try and hope for the best?

I have no interest in overclocking, just curious. :smileywink:

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Every motherboard has a crystal oscillator on it.  The question is whether or not clockgen was programmed to modify the one you have or not.

From what I understand (never done it myself):

What you do is look for the crystal and then read the number which is stamped on it.  The crystal is a small usually round tube which looks like a capacitor but is laying on its side.  On some Dell's -- like my Dimension 3000 -- it has a black plastic cover around it.  Once you get the number off of it, you look in clockgen to see if that crystal is in the database.  If it is you can overclock the motherboard by modifying the crystal.

The crystal creates a beat frequency which the bus speed refers to.  If you modify that frequency you can increase or decrease the bus speed; but you can only modify it a rather small amount.

The crystal can be in different forms:

OVERCLOCKING WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY!

Alright.

Just letting you know that the option is available and has been done on similar Dell systems.