Optiplex 330 CPU Upgrade

Zip48,

We validated the Y935C Wolfdale E8400 3.00GHz 6MB 1333FSB 65W CPU in this PC.

Thanks Chris.

I take it that by this being validated that I can upgrade.  Correct.

Chris:

One more question.  Do I need to upgrade my system bios for the E8400 to work properly?  My present bios is A01 (12/20/07).  Again, thanks for your assistance.

Hi Chris

With the new A07 BIOS bieng available from 4/26/2010, can you tell us a list of supported Intel Processors for the Optiplex 330's which we might choose to upgrade to (I currently have an Core 2 Duo E7200)?

Would that list include Core 2 Quad Processors like the Q9550S, or Core 2 Duo processors like the E7500 or E8600?

If wanting to install a Core 2 Quad processor like the Q8300, Q9400 or Q9500 which can consume max. 95W instead of max 65W, what type of new power supply would have to be installed, if any?

Thanks in advance

John Chamberlain 

I just upgraded my Optiplex 330 this morning with a Q8400 (2.66GHz/1333MHz/4M L2/95W TDP) and it is recognized and supported by A07 BIOS. So I guess this chassis has no problem running a quad core CPU.

The only concern is heat as according to Dell the chassis is capable of handling TDP 65W CPUs only. At idle the core temperature is about 38 degrees Celsius but my first attempt of installation seemed a failure as the 100% loaded temperature shot to 78 degrees Celsius but after reapplying thermal grease it dropped to 73 degrees Celsius. Then I used RMClock to lower the CPU voltage to 1.2V and 100% loaded temperature further dropped down to 68 degrees Celsius, which I assumed is safe.

I used a cheap grease and I guess if I go out and buy a better one the temperature could drop a few more degrees.

And the power supply looked rock solid, even when I tortured both the CPU and the GPU at the same time.

Zuxy

This is great news.  Thanks for sharing.  Do you see any reason why the Q9550S or Q9400S processors would not work too?  These only require 65W, see:

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=40814,35365,39107,35348,40815,33924,38512,

or the Q8400S, see:

http://ark.intel.com/Compare.aspx?ids=42112,40814,35365,39107,35348,40815,33924,38512,

I guess they should all work fine and better than Q8400 due to lower heat dissipation. There's a tiny concern about L2 cache size for Q9550s (12M) because the original spec says Optiplex 330 supports internal cache up to 6M. However it is the same spec that says only Core 2 Duo, Pentium Dual Core and Celeron, and only 800MHz or 1066MHz FSB are supported.

Thanks Zuxy, that's a big help. 

A list I saw of "tested" processors for Optiplex DID include several processors at 1333Mhz.as follows:

D923J Conroe E8500, 3.16GHz, 6MB, WFD, E0

H399J Conroe E8400, 3.00Ghz, 6MB, WFD, E0

MP628 Conroe E6850, 3.00Ghz, 4MB, 1333FSB, G0

MP162 Conroe E6750, 2.66Ghz, 4MB, 1333FSB, G0

PN416 Conroe E6700, 2.66Ghz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2

KU345 Conroe E6600, 2.40Ghz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2

MP160 Conroe E6550, 2.33Ghz, 4MB, 1333FSB

DX484 Conroe E6420, 2.13Ghz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2

DX485 Conroe E6320, 1.86Ghz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2

Y933C Conroe E4700, 2.60Ghz, 2MB, 800FSB, G0

CY593 Conroe E4600, 2.40GHz, 2MB, 800FSB, M0

MP159 Conroe E4500, 2.20Ghz, 2MB, 800FSB, M0

RX522 Conroe E4400, 2.00Ghz, 2MB, 800FSB, M0

HU587 Conroe E4300, 1.80Ghz, 2MB, 800FSB, L2

T944D Conroe E2220, 2.40Ghz, 1MB, 800FSB, M0

RX391 Conroe E2180, 2.00Ghz, 1MB, 800FSB, M0

YU563 Conroe E2160, 1.80Ghz, 1MB, 800FSB, M0

YU562 Conroe E2140, 1.60Ghz, 1MB, 800FSB, M0

Y934C Wolfdale Dual Core E8500, 3.16Ghz, 6MB, 1333FSB, 65W, C0

Y935C Wolfdale Dual Core E8400, 3.00Ghz, 6MB, 1333FSB, 65W, C0

Y932C Wolfdale Dual Core E8200, 2.66Ghz, 6MB, 1333FSB, 65W, C0

X198G Wolfdale Dual Core E7200, 2.53Ghz, 3MB, FD, 65W,M0

 I may still be wary of 12M however ,and perhaps stick with the Q9400S 2.66 Quad Core at 6M.

Zuxy,

How is your Optiplex 330 running with the 8400?  Also what memory did you use? 800 or 1333?  Thank you in advance.

T

Quite well. I installed Windows 7 and Fedora 14 on it and it's running like a charm. And I'm using DDR2 800.

I know this might be a stupid questions, but did you load the 32bit version or 64bit of Win 7? Can the board handle more than 4Gb of ram?

Win 7 x64. I installed 4GB DDR2-800. As the motherboard have only 2 DIMMs I doubt one can ever install more than 4GB RAM on it.

Thanks.  Well, I am going to try to put this 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR2 PC2-6400 5-5-5-12 Dual Channel Kit.  Iv'e been doing research and other motherboards with this chipset can handle 4Gb DIMM .  If it doesn't work I will cut back to a 4GB kit. Wish me luck. 

Tkawika - It's funny you should ask that.  I was running some type of system scanning software a couple of days ago (cannot remmeber which), and it told me that my Optiplex 330 system had the potential for 8,192 MB of RAM, whcih was a big surprise.  I has always through it was 4GB.

Perhaps it's because I'm running Win7 64-bit, and it allows for more RAM?

Anybody , who has has 8 GB of RAM "lying around"  (2 x 4GB) and is running Win 7 64-bit, please can you try installing this 8 GB of RAM and let everybody know if it works!