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XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

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Latest post 11/11/2009 02:14 PM by pdbuzz. 28 replies.
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Joined on 11/17/2008
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XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Hello all, I've been trying to find out what processors are compatible with my XPS 700 with mixed results.  I bought the unit used and previous owner never did the free upgrade to the 720 motherboard so I know quad cores are out Sad   What I'm trying to figure out is if the E8400 Wolfsdale will work in my system, I believe it should since it's LGA 775 but I've heard from a few people that the original XPS 700 motherboard may not be able to handle the new 45nm process chips.  Is anyone running this chip on an XPS 700 without the motherboard upgrade or does anyone know for sure if this chip is compatible?  If not what am I restricted to for choices?

Thanks in advance for the help Smile

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28 Replies:

Joined on 06/09/2009
Posts: 15
Points 375

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Hi Jim I would really apriciate if you could advise me over this matter. I have a XPS 700 in the original comdition,  except I have 4Gigabyte Memory and an nvidia 280GTX Video card. The processor that I have is 1.86Ghz and I am thinking to buy the Intel E7600 3.06 Ghz Processor. Will this work? I would really appriciate any input and help ASAP. Thankyou.

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Joined on 11/14/2008
Posts: 4
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

If my memory serves me correctly that motherboard has the nvidia intel/ 5xx sli chipset.
 
While different, nvidia Nforce based motherboards share the same front side bus chipset with the Dell hybrid intel/nvidia motherboards.
SO- I went to Nvidia and found the motherboard / processor matrix for the different NForce motherboard chipsets.  I attached the list.
 
It came down to this  If the procesor has a 1066 front side bus, it was compatible with the board.
If it had 1333 front side bus - it would not work.
 
This actually has to do with the manufacture of the processor.  I  understand it the 1066 mhz processors are built  made with 65 nm technology.
 
 
The E7600 is made with 45 nm technology
 
 
SOOOO although you are at 1066, the E7600 may still be a problem.
 
 
I successfully ran a QX6600 on a XPS 700 board with the most recent Dell bios for the motherboard.  that would be 5/31/2007  Version 1.4.1
 
I sold my 700 and now own a 720.
 
Hope this helps.
 
PS.  I have tested quite a few video cards lately and I can tell you this  -- The amount of level 2 cache is more important than the speed of the video card.  I
 
 have taken TOP video cards and put them on test motherboards. TOP of the line EVGA triple SLI 780 Nforce boards and with a mediocre processor they run marginally.  I am not a gamer, but on the test bench with a  Pentium D 3.2 800fsb 4mm cache  Geforce 8800GTX , Geforce 9800 GTX and Radeon 2GB  4850 X2 give 3D Mark scores around 7000. 
 
Put them in the Dell with a Q6600  2.4 with quad cores and 8mb cache and they jump up to over 12000.-14000 range
 
Previously tested them on a lesser motherboard with a Pentium D  2.8 800FSB 2 MB cache and got scores in the 4500-5000 range.
 
 
SOO draw your own conclusions.  even though I have  more than capable video cards the processors and the amount of cache proved to be the major factor in determining the performance.
All the boards had 4GB of memory
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Joined on 06/09/2009
Posts: 15
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Let me Thank you so much for the prompt reply and taking time for me in helping with this matter. My friend ordered the E7600 via newegg.com. We got the processor in the morning and you were right it does not work at all Now I have no idea how to return the processor since the return policy is very different. Now you mentioned Q6600 will work, I looked for that but could not find any but I found a Q6700 for 200.00$ you think that will work? I would appriciate your help again thank you so much.

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Joined on 05/06/2009
Posts: 3
Points 45

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

I HAVE XPS 700 I DON'T THINK IT MOBD HAS BEEN UPGRADED BOURGHT IT IN THE OUTLET. I WOULD LIKE TO UPGRADE TO A Q6700

SYSTEM SPECS

8GB OF RAM

GXT285 OC 2GB

DUE CORE 2.13 MHZ

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Joined on 05/06/2009
Posts: 3
Points 45

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

I ALSO HAVE A 700 I LOOKING TO UPGRADE THE CPU ALSO I HAVE 8 GB OF RAM AND ALSO GXT285 OC 2GB, JUST NEED TO REPLACE CPU PLEASE PASS ON ANY INFORMATION ON THIS

 

THANKS

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Joined on 06/09/2009
Posts: 15
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Hi,

Raymond. If you have the original Dell 700 XPS like I have you will have no problem upgrading to Q6700. I upgraded almost two months ago and its running really good.

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Joined on 04/01/2009
Posts: 4
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Hi. I just had a quick question. When you guys replaced the processor with the Q6600, did you use the fan/heatsink that came with the processor, or just the stock  XPS 700 heatsink/fan?

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Caln, Pennsylvania
Joined on 08/10/2003
Posts: 12,486
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

The Q6600 will work just fine on the stock heat sink. My Q6600 runs between 40 -45 from idle to gaming. and its on the stock heat sink


 

XPS 720,Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
8GB OCZ HPC Reaper DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400 at 800MHz
896MB EVGA GTX260 Core 216
320 Raptop&300Gb Serial ATA Hard Drives
Windows Vista Ultimate X64/Win 7 x64
16X DVD-ROM and 16X DVD+/-RW
X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty pro PCIe Sound Card


Dell Studio XPS 1645
Win Vista Home Premium X64
Anyone who says something is foolproof
hasn't met a determined fool


Never Argue with an Idiot. They'll drag you down
to their level and beat you with experience.

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Joined on 04/01/2009
Posts: 4
Points 65

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

I see that you have the xps 720. I still have the stock mobo on the xps 700. Does that make a difference? Also, this is the first time upgrading a processor so I'm not exactly sure when and where I add the thermal compound...? I read a few tutorials online but I wasn't sure if you do anything different when using the stock heatsink on the xps 700?

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Caln, Pennsylvania
Joined on 08/10/2003
Posts: 12,486
Points 116,305

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

I went through the 700/720 upgrade so my heat sink is the same one as I had on the 700 board. There actually is no differnence between the 700/710/720 stock heat sink.

HERE is some info on applying thermal paste. The key is to make sure you clean the old stuff off the bottom of the heat sink


 

XPS 720,Intel Core2 Quad Q6600
8GB OCZ HPC Reaper DDR2 SDRAM PC2 6400 at 800MHz
896MB EVGA GTX260 Core 216
320 Raptop&300Gb Serial ATA Hard Drives
Windows Vista Ultimate X64/Win 7 x64
16X DVD-ROM and 16X DVD+/-RW
X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty pro PCIe Sound Card


Dell Studio XPS 1645
Win Vista Home Premium X64
Anyone who says something is foolproof
hasn't met a determined fool


Never Argue with an Idiot. They'll drag you down
to their level and beat you with experience.

  • Post Points: 20
Joined on 04/01/2009
Posts: 4
Points 65

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Thanks for all the help and info Davet. I'll try it tomrorow.

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Joined on 06/09/2009
Posts: 15
Points 375

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Well I am running Q6700 on my XPS 700 and I am using the original Fan/Heatsink and have no problems at all so I think you should be alright too.

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Joined on 12/01/2008
Posts: 4
Points 140

Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

Just wanted to add another voice on this, also had a stock 700 and just upgraded to the quad Q6700 from the 1.86Ghz dual and continued with the stock XPS heatsink (considering the way the case is designed I'd stick with the stock XPS heatsink, its a heck of a lot more expensive than the Intel one that comes with the chip and the XPS one is made with the case airflow in mind).

It runs great - makes me so happy, its like a new machine...time to go get some memory for these 4 hungry processors.  ;-) 

I just wanted to mention that I used thermal paste instructions for the quad from the arctic silver site (although I used a different brand of thermal paste since I was too impatient to get some arctic silver mail order) over here: http://www.arcticsilver.com/ins_route_step2intelas5.html

The only real nerve wracking thing for me was putting the new chip in - i.e. hoping its centered so that no pins were/would bent and then putting the pressure back on with the socket release lever - those pins are really small and it felt really good after it booted back up.  Good luck everybody.

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Joined on 04/30/2007
Posts: 3
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Re: XPS 700 Processor Upgrade

I'd like to add my experience as well.

I have a stock XPS 700, running a Xeon 3220, on 2GB of PC5400 RAM, on the 1.4.1 BIOS.

I made the leap to the Xeon because it's basically a Q6600 with 'papers' and it was a good price on Ebay. ;)

Here is my performance screen shot with Windows 7 64 bit.

I bought 4GB of PC6400 to throw into it, based on the 'Crucial Scanner' program telling me PC6400 would work, but the box wouldn't even post.  Tossed the old RAM in, BAM, works like a charm again.  I'll just get another pair of PC5400 1GB sticks to fill it up and see what that does to the memory score!

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