Studio XPS 435MT, upgrade options

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@Jamespro wrote:

Looking to update an old PC. Wondering about what and how to do this. Tried taking some pics of the specs but was unable to figure out how to even resize them to post. Everything is original outside of graphics card, power source, and added ram. It's either this or spend money I don't have to buy a completely new system

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I would not spend more than $100 on it. For that, install a (famous maker) 240gb-512gb SATA-3/600 SSD as bootable C: . That should speed-it-up quite a bit.

Take all this other money you were planning to spend on upgrades (they are not cheap) and put in savings account for new desktop computer. 

Have the same machine, with everything pretty much maxed out.  What version of Windows are you on, how much RAM do you have currently and what graphics card?  What do you use the machine for?

A CPU upgrade to an Intel Xeon W3580 (quad core @ 3.33 GHz, i7-975 equivalent) is cheap, about $35 on ebay.  But, if you're on Vista (no longer updated) or Windows 7 (updates end in less than a year - January 14, 2020), it may not be worth it.

And I can attest that a SSD in the 435MT (I'd get at least 240 GB) makes a big difference as Tesla1856 mentioned.  $30 - $50 for a new or used one.

Studio XPS 435mt? I've owned one for 10 years. Done numerous mods and replacements. I couldn't really recommend it because it's getting dated pretty quick now. because of several things. Can't update the bios, ram speed is limited to 1300 mhz, i7 920, parts to upgrade are far too few and in some cases, cost above retail. the ddr 3 ram in the 435 is quickly being dated by ddr4.

Windows 10 would probably tax the start up processes and with newer 64 bit programs with multiple features will slow down considerably. Even with an SSD. In fact, the SSD might be the best upgrade for it. The 920 is only running at 2.67 g and even if you upgrade the motherboard, you're not going to get more than 3.0 g. Even the psu is too small for it.

To start, you'll need to mod the case for cooling, gut everything, get a new motherboard and processor that runs ddr4 (ddr 4 because ddr3 is being phased out).

Would I do it? Yeah, I would. But I'm a computer nut case, an ex tech, a hobbyist and build my computers. I can't recommend trying to rebuild something that old. If you have some background, that helps. Upgrading something that old and that limited, I can't offer any recommendations. The best thing to do is find a used early model ddr4 (z170 motherboard) machine with an i7 processor (Like a 6700k processor). Then you'll have a very good starting point.

You could bury $500 into it and it'll still have incurable problems.

Sorry I'm not much help but I wish you good luck.

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@meddah4 wrote:

Windows 10 would probably tax the start up processes and with newer 64 bit programs with multiple features will slow down considerably. Even with an SSD.  [...]  The 920 is only running at 2.67 g and even if you upgrade the motherboard, you're not going to get more than 3.0 g. 

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Above doesn't match my experience with the machine. 

I'm running Windows 10 on a SSD with the 3.33 GHz base clock quad-core CPU that you can get for about $35 I mentioned above.  I've overclocked it to 3.73 GHz.  On the original motherboard, cooler, PSU and un-modded Dell BIOS.  While running Prime95.  I don't run overclocked since I think it shortens the life of the motherboard, but it's doable if you want to.

Cold power up to Windows 10 Login screen is 35 seconds.  From there, instant to Desktop after Login if the machine had been shutdown without explicitly logging out, 3 seconds otherwise.  (This is without overclocking.)

Apps, most of which are 64-bit, come up almost instantly - there's no feeling you're waiting for anything.  Of course, the 24 GB RAM I have helps (there's reason to believe it would support 48 GB) - lots of memory for fast disk cache and it pretty much never has to slow down to swap an app out of memory to disk to make room for another app.

I'm not suggesting upgrading the machine at this point is the best decision, but maxed out it's performance is something I can live with, at least for non-demanding applications.

My posts on CPU upgrades and overclocking are here and here (including following posts).  SSD and Windows 10 upgrade experience here.

Obviously you went through a lot of time to circumvent Dell's prohibiting practices. I commend you. Since I was referring to the Dell Studio XPS 435mt (i7 920), I never found a way to update the bios on the Dell motherboard (Foxconn OR849J). I tried to upgrade the cpu to 960 but no cigar. It just 'black screen'. I couldn't get Intel's XTU to work either. Nor could I run ram higher than 1333.

I was able to update the hardware and peripherals. The last upgrade was an SSD which was 4 years ago.

I stopped trying find a fix but rather build my computers and avoid Dell's frustrating policies and their OEM partners altogether. -Understanding this, Dell is not in the business of fixing computers. Dell is in the business of selling computers. 

So I am trying to speed up my computer. Everything on it is original. Should I get the SSD metioned above (240gb SATA-3/600 SSD) or upgrade the CPU?

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@VonMises98 wrote:

So I am trying to speed up my computer. Everything on it is original.

Should I get the SSD metioned above (240gb SATA-3/600 SSD) or upgrade the CPU?

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Yes, only the SSD.

And take it back-out when you recycle the machine soon.

I added a 500W power supply, 3 x 4GB DDR3 1600 MHz PC3-12800 Non-ECC DIMMs and an NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Super.  Last year I upgraded to Windows 10 Home directly from the Microsoft website for free.

The computer runs smoothly.  I can play the latest games at at least 30 FPS at 1080p.

I you still have the 6GB the computer came with, upgrade the RAM first.  Then add a good power supply and a decent graphics card.

I have two of these and 4 sticks of Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 8 GB arrived today. I put them in one of them (it already had 2x4 GB), booted it up and Windows 10 reports 40 GB of RAM! This system is going to be used for trading but it's been an Oracle Enterprise Linux development server in the past and has taken on various roles over the years. I'm tempted to get another pair of 8 GB sticks to get it to 48 GB. I am also curious if it will take 16 GB sticks. I also have a new video card that will support a 4K display and I plan to hook that up for trading. This is one amazing system.

This system has a 240 GB SSD for booting, a 1 TB WD Black for storing videos, and a 500 GB external SSD. This system has basically received a lot of castoff parts.

Funny thing about the Dell XPS 435mt motherboard. When I first heard about Foxconn boards it wasn't anything good. They were comparing it with Biostar which was the bottom of the motherboard barrel. Guess that was 2007. But I think this Dell/Foxconn OR849J motherboard is great. Had a spare board and 920 chip for 7 yrs. Never needed to replace it. Changed everything else.

Even found 4 matching holes on the front of the case to put a 90mm fan. Removed the card reader and installed an SSD tray making room for more airflow. Found a fan driven x58 northbridge cooler (Silenx INX40C). Had to work with it a wee bit but makes a 15c difference (sits close to the CPU cooler).

I did a 500gb ssd, 12gb (6x2gb) ram, northbridge cooler, and a gtx 1070

Also managed to cram a 120mm intake fan on the inside of the front, and cut 2x 120mm holes on the bottom and added dust covers for more air for the card to draw. Also added higher feet on the bottom of the case for more airflow

all in all great pc for web browsing, folding@home, netflix, and occasional 1440pm gaming, although less optimized titles generate insane amounts of heat

i acquired a 435mt recently. had the i7 920 with 8gb mix matched ram and no hdd, a ati 68xx 1gb vid and a upgraded 700w ps. was 200$ on fb marketplace.

since then i put in a samsung 860 evo 500gb ssd, upgraded the vid to evga 970, added a intel ax200 wifi card with bt, and added 8gb more matching kingston hyper sticks to a total of 16gb running win 10pro and dual dell 21.5in monitors.

computer is a beast now and runs new games decently but its a web surfer for me. like multi tab edge and office open use.

acquired a silverstone case that im swapping the internals over to have a cooler temp since the fans seem to raise speed on moderate use.

maybe put in a pcie usb3.0 card in to have function of the new usb3.0 ports on the new case. ill see what happens.

only real upgrade im debating on is cpu. have the 920 but looking at the 965 or 975 i7.