Dell Dimension E520 - Graphics Upgrade?!

You could stick a 9500GT or a HD4670 onto that machine. These cards require no extra power connectors and draws all of its power from the PCI Express x16 slot.

Max Power for 9500GT - 50 watts.
Max Power for HD4670 - 59 watts.

Naru2005: I too want to upgrade my E520. I notice you have a Q6600 quad. Does it work OK? I should think it would require a larger power supply also. My lowly machine came with a E6300 core Duo. Works OK for some things.

Well the Q6600 requires 105 watt if power and your processor 65 watts. But dell makes their processors different so it meets the standards of the computer.

Hello rockorchard and its nice to meet you. My name is Hunter and i will help you here. Although i do not have a dimension 520 i can still help you. Im wondering are you asking Naru2005 her processor type because you want an upgrade processor? I currently have a Q6600 and it requires 65 watts and sometimes more than that. You dual core requires about 55watts or greater. So they are in about the same in power usage, but a huge difference in preformance. Also, if you were to upgrade your processor it would void your warrenty, so i would not recommend that.

Hunter

XPS 420

INTEL Q6600

425 watt power supply

4GB memory

Windows Vista 64bit

EVGA Geforce GTS 250 1GB SC

For the interest of anyone reading the post at a later date, I've just fitted a 1GB Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4670 DDR3 into my E520.  Great card for the job, slips straight into the slot with no PSU or other mods needed.

well i was wrong and you were right your computer can only support the e6600 im not too sure about the e6700. I am wondering are these cards socket 775 and are they 65Nm. If they are then your computer would support q6600 or q6700. The only thing about upgrading to the quad cores is the power requirement. You would either have to do a power supply upgrade or buy a (dedicated power supply (only for graphics)). Your manual only says the E6600, because when you bought your computer that was the best core avaiable, then there was no quad cores available. If you would like me to i will have you talk to my friend from dell that could help you in this situation and find the best parts for your computer.

Hunter

rockorchard,

The KU345 Core 2 Duo Conroe E6600, 2.4GHz, 4MB, 1066FSB, B2, 65nm is the fastest we validated in the Dimension E520. But, based on Naru2005s sig file, I guess the Core 2 Quad Q6600 works. You can upgrade the 305w power supply to this 500w power supply to support a better PCIe x16 video card and CPU.

Chris M,

I just bought a Q6700 to fit into my E520; this should work with my existing 305w CPU, shouldn't it?

HI: That is very interesting. Did you run this upgrade with the stock PS of 305W and did it run well? Or did you also upgrade the PS to 450 or more watts?

Hunter: as far as I can remember, the E5700 was not out when I bought the E520 or at least readily available, Maybe the Q6600 would also work but in a limited fashion. That is what prompted me to enquire when a Q6600 was listed in a members profile. If the motherboard will match some of the multipliers, etc. The Q6600 should function but how well is the question.

Thanks for all your help though. Maybe your contact in Dell has some information? Certainly a bigger PS would also be required for high intensity video/gaming. But I don't do gaming. Just CAD and mapping. Both require some large files, and some speed but not up to intensive gaiming requirements.

Hey guys,

Could really use some help here, I started running Modern Warfare 2 and it seems to have fried my video card on my E520 (Green and purple fuzzy pixels and lines appear on the screen  now)

I have the Nvidia gforce 7300LE on this computer and wanted a quick and easy upgrade to replace the one that seems on it's way out now. 

Any suggestions?  and is there an option to use a card that would simply require me to replace the one in there now? or do I have to do changes in BIOS and others areas that could be too complicated for a novice like myself?

Computer:

Dell Dimension E520 

Intel Core 2 CPU

6400 @ 2.13 GHz

2GB of Ram

Thank you

Hi,

The best card you can fit without replacing the PSU or similar is the ATI Radeon HD4670 (or Nvidia equivelant).  I went for the 1gb DDR3 version; it fits straight into the slot and doesn't need any extra power (nothing to plug in).

Ok I started looking and found ALOT of options, do you have a link to the specific card you used?

This is what I have found so far:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121328&cm_re=ATI_Radeon_HD4670_DDR3-_-14-121-328-_-Product

or:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102842&cm_re=Sapphire_ATI_Radeon_4670-_-14-102-842-_-Product

Thank you for the help.