Inspiron 580, replace PSU, upgrades CPU, ram

Question

I have a Inspiron 580 and it currently has the stock i3 CPU. I think its 530 and I'm wondering if I can upgrade that cpu to a i5-750? If not what can I upgrade to? And is the i5-660 available (don't answer this if the question is yes)(Save your time) I have blew the PSU on the pc. I know this due to the green light on the back isn't turning on and there is no amber orange light on the motherboard. So will any ATX PSU work with the pc? I also want to upgrade my ram to 8GB and I know that i can have 1033/1066MHz and only 2GB per channel but I want to know would it matter if they were all the same frequency but with different brands. I'm assuming this would work as it has in the past but just want to make sure as Dell might have some sort of chip to stop that. Thanks for your time, hope to hear back soon! Have a good day.

Mary G · Answer

Your model is really old now--12 yrs old--it's not worth the expense of making changes like that even if you could find the parts. Since the computer has come to its end of life since it sounds like the board is bad--put the money towards a new computer.

Mallu86 · Answer

Hi sorry for the late reply since then I have upgraded the gpu to a rx460 and the psu the motherboard wasn't blew lucky me now I'm just wondering if the ram can be diffrent (all same MHz and GB) just diffrent models

Mary G · Answer

It is better to have all the memory match. Dell computers are fussy about ram. You must use the approved ram. Check Crucial to see what the specs are. There are a couple of 580 models.

Mallu86 · Answer

Thanks iv ordered some ram I don't think they will match as they are from cex I'll have to see if they don't I'll just return it not a issue

tales59 · Answer

It's a bit late to reply to Mallu86 but for others wondering about upgrading the Inspiron 580 I am using an i7-870 four-core, 8-thread processor that is much faster than the original 2-core/4-thread i3-550. All of the i7 processors that fit the LGA1156 socket in the Inspiron 580 lack graphics and will require a separate graphics card to be installed in a PCIe slot. Other 4-core/8-thread processors that work: i7-880 (fastest but expensive) and i7-860.

The i5-750 and i5-760 would work in the Inspiron 580 but they are 4 core 4 thread processors, not as fast as the i7's and also lack on-board graphics support. I don't see them as worthwhile upgrades when the i7s can be purchased so cheaply.

While I've not verified it, there are several reports of people installing 4-core/8-thread xeon x3460 and x3470 processors in the Inspiron 580 on the UserBenchmark website. The xeon x3480 is the fastest and most expensive that would work in the Inspiron. These xeon processors support up to 32GB of memory. The H57 chipset may also support 32 GB and if so, you could install up to 4x8GB of RAM with the xeon processors. Again, I've not verified this but have seen reports on UserBenchmark of people successfully using 8GB RAM modules in the Inspiron 580.

If you want to keep the on-board graphics and not put in an extra graphics card, the fastest processors are the i5-680 (slower graphics, faster processing) or the i5-661 (faster graphics, slower processing) which can be purchased for around $25 used. They are 2 core-4 thread processors that are maybe 10-15% faster than the i3-550. I tried the i5-680 but the on-board graphics was slow, even for Zoom videos. An old cheap graphics card (i.e. GT 730) is a dramatic improvement. The i5-661 increases graphics speeds from 733MHz to 900MHz but still wouldn't come close to the GT 730 or similar cards. If you want to use the Inspiron 580 for a daily desktop, I'd recommend using a graphics card rather than the on-board graphics.

I've used a GT 730 graphics card in the x16 slot and a different GT 730 in the x1 slot successfully. It took a bit of tweaking to get the x1 card to work (you need to disable the on-board graphics if the processor supports it) but that's what I've been using for a year now.

I also upgraded memory to 16gb (4x4gb) of ddr3-10600 (1333 Mhz RAM, abt $50) a year ago. You need to make sure the memory is low density and I found out the hard way that the higher density RAM made for machines built after 2012 won't work. I ended up using 4 Hynix HMT351U6BFR8C-H9 4GB RAM modules, similar to the 2GB sticks that were originally installed in my unit after verifying that they were low density and used in 2011 era PCs.

A Solid State Drive is by far the best upgrade you can make to the Inspiron 580 or any PC that lacks one. You could probably use most modern graphics cards under 75 watts in the Inspiron 580 as well. With a more power hungry graphics card, you'd need to upgrade the stock 300W power supply and I've not tried that yet.

Upgrades in order of importance (IMO):

0. Windows 10 (free, working very well for several years)

1. SATA SSD ($50-100 but reusable)

2. <75W Graphics Card, ideally single slot but a double slot card that covers the x1 slot should also work ($25-75, an older one might even be free)

3. 4-core/8-thread CPU (~$25) which requires a separate graphics card

4. 8-16GB RAM ($25-50)

Inspiron Desktops

Inspiron 580, replace PSU, upgrades CPU, ram

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