Studio XPS 435T, upgrade options?

It should work fine:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/studio-xps-9000/manuals

With an Intel-i7 and x58-chipset, sounds a lot like my old Aurora-R1 . However, these days, it has a bootable SATA-SSD, and GTX-1070 . It's always had 12gb RAM. My machine can run Creatrive Cloud all day long (including Premier).

Take another look at the memory. It's tri-channel, so I'm guessing it's 6gb (not 5).

I would not spend much on it. Only buy things for it that you can use in another machine later (like a SATA-SSD). You can buy newer-model refurbished or off-lease OptiPlexes towers with an included Windows-7 Pro license (that will upgrade to Windows-10 Pro 64bit for free) for $150.  

I have this machine (Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000).  Mine is running a 6 core processor overclocked to 3.85 GHz, 48 GB memory, a GTX 970 graphics card and several SSDs - all on the original Power Supply.

Options I'd consider for your machine might be:

- Windows 10 upgrade

- Add 12 GB memory.  Since memory modules must be matched in threes and it has 6 slots, your config would likely be 3 x 1 GB (existing) plus 3 x 4 GB (new) modules.  This would give a total of 15 GB, which would be reasonable for Adobe Creative Cloud.  4 GB modules are about $27 a piece, so about $80 total.  (Machine will handle 8 GB modules, so you can go up to 6 x 8 GB or 48 GB total, but memory is expensive these days.)

- Upgrade processor for higher speed and/or more cores.  I'm assuming you currently have the i7-920, which is 4 cores at 2.66 GHz.  Intel Xeons are relatively cheap second-hand and work fine in the 435T.  CPUs I'd consider and approximate prices on eBay (caveat emptor on Seller, etc., of course):

• Xeon W3690, 6 cores, 3.46 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $90 (this is the processor I have)
• Xeon W3680, 6 cores, 3.33 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $50
• Xeon W3580, 4 cores, 3.33 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $25
• Xeon W3570, 4 cores, 3.2 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $20

For a more complete CPU list, see Studio XPS 435T / 9000 compatible processor list thread.  Overclocking can vary, but would likely add 0.266 to 0.399 GHz to the above speeds (although the overclocking would likely throttle after a few minutes of full load).

Following upgrades would likely also be compatible with any future machine:

- Graphics card.  You can probably go up to a GTX 1070 with the original PSU if you pick a card with low default wattage and base clock.  Up to $400.

- A SSD drive for the Windows OS for better responsiveness.

Whether to upgrade and how much to spend is up to you.

---

@Techgee wrote:

I have this machine (Dell Studio XPS 435T/9000).  Mine is running a 6 core processor overclocked to 3.85 GHz, 48 GB memory, a GTX 970 graphics card and several SSDs - all on the original Power Supply.

Options I'd consider for your machine might be:

- Windows 10 upgrade

- Add 12 GB memory.  Since memory modules must be matched in threes and it has 6 slots, your config would likely be 3 x 1 GB (existing) plus 3 x 4 GB (new) modules.  This would give a total of 15 GB, which would be reasonable for Adobe Creative Cloud.  4 GB modules are about $27 a piece, so about $80 total.  (Machine will handle 8 GB modules, so you can go up to 6 x 8 GB or 48 GB total, but memory is expensive these days.)

- Upgrade processor for higher speed and/or more cores.  I'm assuming you currently have the i7-920, which is 4 cores at 2.66 GHz.  Intel Xeons are relatively cheap second-hand and work fine in the 435T.  CPUs I'd consider and approximate prices on eBay (caveat emptor on Seller, etc., of course):

• Xeon W3690, 6 cores, 3.46 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $90 (this is the processor I have)
• Xeon W3680, 6 cores, 3.33 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $50
• Xeon W3580, 4 cores, 3.33 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $25
• Xeon W3570, 4 cores, 3.2 GHz, Unlocked (can be overclocked), $20

For a more complete CPU list, see Studio XPS 435T / 9000 compatible processor list thread.  Overclocking can vary, but would likely add 0.266 to 0.399 GHz to the above speeds (although the overclocking would likely throttle after a few minutes of full load).

Following upgrades would likely also be compatible with any future machine:

- Graphics card.  You can probably go up to a GTX 1070 with the original PSU if you pick a card with low default wattage and base clock.  Up to $400.

- A SSD drive for the Windows OS for better responsiveness.

Whether to upgrade and how much to spend is up to you.

---

How fast are your SATA SSDs running? Did you figure out a way to get SATA-3/600 speeds or better on a machine with Intel-x58 chipset? Of course, it would need to be bootable.

Tesla1856,

I found lots of options to go beyond the SATA II / 3.0 Gbps drive limitation of the 435T, but the quandary is that beyond the graphics slot, it only has a single PCIe 2.x slot - the x8 one.  The PCIe 1.x x1 slots are worthless, bandwidth wise.  I don't want to cut off future expandability, including:

• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbit/s) and USB 3.2 (20 Gbit/s)
• [e]SATA III / 6.0 Gbps
• NVMe (all flavors of SSD, as well as non-SSD NVMe/PCIe devices)

I'd like the one slot to support all of the above.

Note with regard to bandwidth a PCIe 2.x channel operates at 5GT/s.  So, a x8 card would have up to 40 GT/s available to it.  Likewise, a x4 card could theoretically utilize up to 20 GT/s.  Ideally, I'd like a solution that can max out the x8 slot's 40 GT/s bandwidth.

Options are:

1. A combo card.  However, these seem to only be available at a reasonable price in a x4 card - I don't really see any x8 options.  There are USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbit/s) and [e]SATA III (6 Gbps) combo x4 cards.  Typically, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 device and one SATA III device would be supported at full bandwidth, additional devices would share the bandwidth.
2. A straight USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 (not available yet) card.  Again, I don't see any x8 options.  I have seen x4 cards supporting full, dedicated USB 3.1 Gen 2 speed (10 Gbit/s) for 2 devices (with extra devices sharing the bandwidth).  SATA and NVMe could be supported by enclosures that connect via USB.
3. A PCIe "switch card" that reconfigures channels to allow (2) x4 cards to be attached to the x8 slot in the desktop.  This would add flexibility to support (2) x4 cards - say one with USB 3.x (or USB/SATA combo) and another with a straight NVMe/PCIe x4 SSD.  x8 cards are available with 2 NVMe/PCIe M.2 slots for 2 NVMe/PCIe SSDs.  Cabling a male NVMe/PCIe x4 M.2 to female desktop PCIe x4 connector might allow a traditional PCIe x4 card to be connected in place of the NVMe/PCIe SSD.

Solutions I've read about to boot off the above are:

• Select a device with a Legacy BIOS Option ROM that the BIOS would see as bootable.  Some SSDs and PCIe cards have this.
• Use a bootloader that loads up drivers, etc. needed for the boot device.  For example, I believe DUET/Clover bootloaders provide a UEFI interface and NVMe/SSD protocol on top of a legacy BIOS.

Anyway, I haven't pulled the trigger on this upgrade yet, but it's definitely doable...

---

@Techgee wrote:

Tesla1856,

I found lots of options to go beyond the SATA II / 3.0 Gbps drive limitation of the 435T, but the quandary is that beyond the graphics slot, it only has a single PCIe 2.x slot - the x8 one.  The PCIe 1.x x1 slots are worthless, bandwidth wise.  I don't want to cut off future expandability, including:

• USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbit/s) and USB 3.2 (20 Gbit/s)
• [e]SATA III / 6.0 Gbps
• NVMe (all flavors of SSD, as well as non-SSD NVMe/PCIe devices)

I'd like the one slot to support all of the above.

Note with regard to bandwidth a PCIe 2.x channel operates at 5GT/s.  So, a x8 card would have up to 40 GT/s available to it.  Likewise, a x4 card could theoretically utilize up to 20 GT/s.  Ideally, I'd like a solution that can max out the x8 slot's 40 GT/s bandwidth.

Options are:

1. A combo card.  However, these seem to only be available at a reasonable price in a x4 card - I don't really see any x8 options.  There are USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10 Gbit/s) and [e]SATA III (6 Gbps) combo x4 cards.  Typically, one USB 3.1 Gen 2 device and one SATA III device would be supported at full bandwidth, additional devices would share the bandwidth.
2. A straight USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2 (not available yet) card.  Again, I don't see any x8 options.  I have seen x4 cards supporting full, dedicated USB 3.1 Gen 2 speed (10 Gbit/s) for 2 devices (with extra devices sharing the bandwidth).  SATA and NVMe could be supported by enclosures that connect via USB.
3. A PCIe "switch card" that reconfigures channels to allow (2) x4 cards to be attached to the x8 slot in the desktop.  This would add flexibility to support (2) x4 cards - say one with USB 3.x (or USB/SATA combo) and another with a straight NVMe/PCIe x4 SSD.  x8 cards are available with 2 NVMe/PCIe M.2 slots for 2 NVMe/PCIe SSDs.  Cabling a male NVMe/PCIe x4 M.2 to female desktop PCIe x4 connector might allow a traditional PCIe x4 card to be connected in place of the NVMe/PCIe SSD.

Solutions I've read about to boot off the above are:

• Select a device with a Legacy BIOS Option ROM that the BIOS would see as bootable.  Some SSDs and PCIe cards have this.
• Use a bootloader that loads up drivers, etc. needed for the boot device.  For example, I believe DUET/Clover bootloaders provide a UEFI interface and NVMe/SSD protocol on top of a legacy BIOS.

Anyway, I haven't pulled the trigger on this upgrade yet, but it's definitely doable...

---

Thanks for the reply.

My Aurora-R6 is nice, but I still have my Aurora-R1 (Intel-i7-930, x58-chipset, 12gb ram, Nvidia GTX-1070, SSD) in service.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-General-Read-Only/Recommended-NVIDIA-graphics-cards-for-Alienware-Aurora-R1-2009/td-p/5590861

A while back, I used the available PCIe-x1-slot for a 2-port USB-3.0 card (works nice). For a machine of this age, I think "that's good" as far as newer ports go. I still have a final PCIe-x16-slot available for one final addin card.

While a (bootable) NVMe card would be nice, I don't think that is happening since these systems are non-UEFI. But even if we settled for a (bootable) PCIe SATA-port card, it's SATA-3/600 would still be twice-as-fast as the SATA-2/300 we are limited to now. Seems to me that doubling the transfer speed of the main bootable Windows-10 drive would be a nice final upgrade for this machine.

Even if it's demoted eventually, it would still make a nice general-use computer for someone or a nice Kodi/Plex/Living-Room-Casual-Gamer box.

I have this same type of desktop, for now i´m only looking to upgrade the ram memory, up to 15 gb, which type of memory and if someone can give me a link to buy it.. 

Thanks for your help, 

Reynaldo

I assume you have (3) 1GB sticks and are looking to add (3) 4GB sticks to bring your total memory to 15GB.

I've used both Crucial Ballistic Sport and Kingston HyperX in my Studio XPS 435T/9000.  If I was buying new 4GB sticks I'd get 3 of the Ballistic Sport's, for example from here or here.  About $35 a piece.

I do in fact have 6 dimm of 1gb each, for a total of 6GB actually. thanks for your help

what other upgrade part do you recommend, i recently installed a GEFORCE 450 1024MB GDDR5, i have it running windows 10 pro edition. Thanks for your help

I seen another thread with some specs on max upgrades with a 940 i7, i have a 920 wich I believe is same as yours, how ever, any information i researched sais that its max ram would be 12 gigs on 6 slots, i have 5 4 gig sticks and one 8 gig on mine, and it works, how ever its runing (on speccy) @ 531Mhz, wich i have no idea why, playing around with difrent speeds, i cant make it reach higher numbers, currently working on tapping out all 6 slots to 8 gigs each but it is possible to get more ram than specified, let me clarify Im no tech wiss.. I just like to mess around with my own gigs,  wish me luck!  

Re:i have 5 4 gig sticks and one 8 gig on mine, and it works, how ever its running  @ 531Mhz, witch i have no idea why,

when you have 6 sticks of different capacity, it is no longer triple channel.  more likely it is single channel.  so bandwidth of memory is much lower than say 6 4G sticks.

when bios detects 6 sticks of different spec (last one being 8 gb), it tries to downclock all the ram to make a compromise.  call it dirty memory mixing.  if you only care about total ram sum but not running speed and bandwidth, then you may throw in a mix of whatever available at hand and see what runs.

Hello there teChgee. How did you went about getting it to a total of 48 GB of ram? I have an SSD as my windows 10 boot drive. I there have 3 Harddrive for programs and storage. Have a Zotac 1080 TI 8GB video Card. Feel free to email me on this topic of your total 48 GB Ram

< Private Email id removed.TOS69>

@Joey7styles 

48 gigs using 6 x 8 gig dimm.

Not supported but it may work with specific LOW Density Single or Dual Rank Ram where all modules are the same.